Staghound 1850 by rwiederrich - 1/96 - Extreme Clipper

[ClipperFan]

@rwiederrich beautifully done name boards. Unfortunately according to Michael Mjelde, her officially registered name was two words Stag Hound, not a single word. He reminded me when I shared the fact that Cornelius W McKay used the single Staghound word in his banner for his drawing of her. Just thought I'd let you know. Still, they're lovely pieces.

Edited October 7 by ClipperFan
additional info.

[Rick310]

Wonderful job on the name boards Rob!!

I liked the way you did the lubbers holes in the tops!  This is a really beautiful build!

Rick

[Jared]

You have made a lot of progress over the last 4 weeks while I was away Rob.  Beautiful work!   How did you make the name boards?

[rwiederrich]

Here is a quick process review of the name boards. 
I first, carved a wooden name board.

Then I duplicated it. 
Next I formed several duplicates in light cured plastic. 
Carved them to follow the hull curvature, painted and added premade printed name plates.  
 

After Rich reminded me that her name was actually two words, I remade the starboard name board with a golden decorative break between the words.  
 

Rob

[rwiederrich]

Wider view

[rwiederrich]

Finished the port side.   
 

Rob

 

Edited October 9 by rwiederrich

[BANYAN]

 A tip-of-the-hat to you Rob, that looks great!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Rick310]

Beautifully done Rob!

The impression brings back memories of dental school!

Rick

[rwiederrich]

21 hours ago, BANYAN said:

 A tip-of-the-hat to you Rob, that looks great!

 

cheers

 

Pat

We have very little info about her finer details……so, when Rich pointed out my oversight, I had no other option, but to correct it.  Thanks for the fine comments. 
 

Rob

[rwiederrich]

5 hours ago, Rick310 said:

Beautifully done Rob!

The impression brings back memories of dental school!

Rick

I have all my slow and high speed hand pieces rigged up and most of my lab equipment.     Makes model making so much fun.  
 

Rob

[Rick310]

Rob, wish I still had my high and low speed hand pieces!  I do have my hand instruments and my lathe ( bought thru the office for model ship building).  
With your background as a lab tech and Denturist, you must have a fantastic shop!!

Rick

[Rick310]

Plus, you really know how to use it all!!

You also have extensive knowledge of dental materials, most of which I haven’t used in 40 years as an endodontist.

Still trying to learn how to use my metal lathe and milling machine (not from dental school!).

Rick

[ClipperFan]

18 hours ago, rwiederrich said:

We have very little info about her finer details……so, when Rich pointed out my oversight, I had no other option, but to correct it.  Thanks for the fine comments. 
 

Rob

 

[ClipperFan]

@rwiederrich in fairness, I was reluctant to bring up the name board issue, since you did such a beautiful job. But Mike's insistence on historic accuracy prompted me to remind you. Personally I prefer the single word but that's inaccurate. Still, Rob you made a masterful recovery with your new signs.

Edited October 11 by ClipperFan
correction

[rwiederrich]

Worked on the mizzen mast today.   
 

Still need to rig it with blocks before I begin the yards.  
 

Rob

[Dr PR]

Nice work!

[uscharin]

Rob,

This page served as a bookmark in an old book I was thumbing through this morning.  Immediately thought of you.  Article is not complete but Is from a ca1932 Popular Mechanics.  And Stag*Hound is spelled... Staghound.  Haha.

Love how your mast is looking,

Ron

 

Edited October 13 by uscharin

[ClipperFan]

7 hours ago, uscharin said:

Rob,

This page served as a bookmark in an old book I was thumbing through this morning.  Immediately thought of you.  Article is not complete but Is from a ca1932 Popular Mechanics.  And Stag*Hound is spelled... Staghound.  Haha.

Love how your mast is looking,

Ron

 

@uscharin Ron, nice find! I love these old periodicals and the fine details they share about these marvelous, long departed wind ships. As I told Rob, my personal, emotional preference for McKay's premier clipper ship is Staghound but according to ship's registries, her official name is Stag Hound. It's possible that at some point there was consideration of using the single word, as witness by Cornelius McKay's titling his ship plan banner as Staghound. Eventually a decision was made to name her Stag Hound. Meanwhile, I'm going to see if I can find the rest of this article.

[rwiederrich]

Not sure the Popular Mechanic article is as accurate when claiming that Great Republic had a 180 ft main yard.   It was actually only 120 ft.  
 

Rob

[ClipperFan]

31 minutes ago, rwiederrich said:

Not sure the Popular Mechanic article is as accurate when claiming that Great Republic had a 180 ft main yard.   It was actually only 120 ft.  
 

Rob

Rob,

Apparently, fact checking wasn't as accurate in 1926 when this article was published. Here's the entire November piece, warts and all, courtesy of Google books.

[ClipperFan]

Around April this year, Customs House Museum, Newburyport, Mass. shared a newly acquired piece: "Clipper Ship Staghound with partially furled sails” by James E. Buttersworth, ca. 1855. Of note for this work is her apparent destination to Norway, as signified by the Norwegian ensign at the foremast truck. Counting works by the same artist at South Street Seaport, NYC, another at Princeton, NJ a third auctioned from an as yet unidentified location and this work makes four now. Fascinating.

[Kenchington]

Not the Norwegian ensign (closer to the Finnish one, but that dates from after independence from Russia). Anyway, courtesy ensigns should go at the starboard fore crosstrees, not the fore truck.

 

I suspect a signal flag. Blue cross on white is the modern International Code flag for "X", though that does not have the swallowtail shown in the painting. Besides, the various codes in use in the 1850s differed from the one familiar today. From the presence of a pilot schooner under the ship's bow, I'll take a guess that the flag signalled arrival in some way. Could be alerting the customs and quarantine officials (equivalent to the modern "Q"), a call for a pilot (modern "G") or a request for a tug (modern "Z"), any or all of which would mean the end of a voyage. (Perhaps a record-breaking one, which would justify the arrival being immortalized in oils?)

 

Perhaps someone can recognize the headland in the background and so identify the port that the clipper has reached. I thought that the symbol on the pilot's mainsail might tell us something but, once magnified, that is just a "5".

 

Trevor

 

[ClipperFan]

1 hour ago, Kenchington said:

Not the Norwegian ensign (closer to the Finnish one, but that dates from after independence from Russia). Anyway, courtesy ensigns should go at the starboard fore crosstrees, not the fore truck.

 

I suspect a signal flag. Blue cross on white is the modern International Code flag for "X", though that does not have the swallowtail shown in the painting. Besides, the various codes in use in the 1850s differed from the one familiar today. From the presence of a pilot schooner under the ship's bow, I'll take a guess that the flag signalled arrival in some way. Could be alerting the customs and quarantine officials (equivalent to the modern "Q"), a call for a pilot (modern "G") or a request for a tug (modern "Z"), any or all of which would mean the end of a voyage. (Perhaps a record-breaking one, which would justify the arrival being immortalized in oils?)

 

Perhaps someone can recognize the headland in the background and so identify the port that the clipper has reached. I thought that the symbol on the pilot's mainsail might tell us something but, once magnified, that is just a "5".

 

Trevor

 

Hi Trevor, the observation of a Norwegian flag came from a fellow Facebook poster. I personally never heard of Stag Hound venturing there but thought the observation might be credible. Your interpretation makes far more sense. Here's the write up which accompanied the image. There's mention of her making a journey from San Francisco to Honolulu in 8 days, 20 hours shaving off 3 days from a previous record.  The small sloop with number 5 on the mainsail is clearly a pilot boat, so the ensign on the foremast truck makes more sense it's a signal flag to them.

[Kenchington]

That's great, @ClipperFan!

 

What's the chance that the painting shows her arrival at New York after her record-breaking maiden voyage that, if I'm reading your material right, was also a circumnavigation (Boston, round the Horn to 'Frisco, across the Pacific to China, then home across the Indian Ocean and westward round the Cape)? That would be something that the captain and owners would want to commemorate. If so, the painting would date from 1851 and pilot schooner No.5 would be Mary Taylor -- George Steers' precursor to his design of the yacht America and launched in 1848, hence a schooner famous in her own right and adding to the prestige of the event.

 

I have only entered New York from seaward once and it was a long time ago (1977, after crossing from Southampton on QEII -- Not as extravagant as it sounds: Cunard had student-standby rates in those days). I do remember the fog clearing to give a view of Verrazano Narrows bridge, then Manhattan, but I don't recall anything of our landfall, so I can't say whether the headland in the image is plausible for somewhere along Long Island. Just possibly Montauk Point?

 

Trevor

[ClipperFan]

1 hour ago, Kenchington said:

That's great, @ClipperFan!

 

What's the chance that the painting shows her arrival at New York after her record-breaking maiden voyage that, if I'm reading your material right, was also a circumnavigation (Boston, round the Horn to 'Frisco, across the Pacific to China, then home across the Indian Ocean and westward round the Cape)? That would be something that the captain and owners would want to commemorate. If so, the painting would date from 1851 and pilot schooner No.5 would be Mary Taylor -- George Steers' precursor to his design of the yacht America and launched in 1848, hence a schooner famous in her own right and adding to the prestige of the event.

 

I have only entered New York from seaward once and it was a long time ago (1977, after crossing from Southampton on QEII -- Not as extravagant as it sounds: Cunard had student-standby rates in those days). I do remember the fog clearing to give a view of Verrazano Narrows bridge, then Manhattan, but I don't recall anything of our landfall, so I can't say whether the headland in the image is plausible for somewhere along Long Island. Just possibly Montauk Point?

 

Trevor

Trevor, you bring up an intriguing suggestion. A closer look at the Pilot boat from another recently listed JEB piece (work no 5?) reveals a remarkable resemblance to the George Steers' schooner Mary Taylor. In which case, it might very well represent culmination of a circumnavigation by the Stag Hound.

[Kenchington]

They certainly look like very similar schooners, if not identical, while Steers' designs (with narrow bow and wide quarters) were a new departure at the time, unlikely to be encountered anywhere but New York.

 

But now we have two versions of the Buttersworth painting, one with a possible signal flag at the fore (blue cross on white) and the other either a plain blue (which the pilot seems to carry too) or maybe a US Navy jack, with stars on the blue.

 

And one last point: The claim that the painting shows Stag Hound with "partially furled sails" is a bit misleading. She has her skys'l yards set down, her  t'gan'sl's and royals furled, along with her main course and her cro'jick too But the sense of action and movement (enough that I can almost hear the canvas thundering, just from looking at the image!) comes from her upper topsails being clewed down and her outer jib hauled down likewise -- presumably to slow the ship enough to take the pilot aboard. Those sails are not about to be furled, but will soon be set again, to power her final approach to (I think) Sandy Hook.

 

They are remarkable paintings.

 

Trevor

[sheepsail]

I've noted before,  to be suspicious of any Butterworth painting.  Especially ones that have something which does not fit the narrative.  Or adds new information. Forgers like to fill in missing gaps in the scholarship to prove province.  

 

Ken Perenyi forged dozens of them.  Designed to fool 'experts'  In the book Caveat Emptor he gives specific descriptions of how such is done, using stencils and replicating ships and flags from one to another.  Also how old materials and chemistry is used to fool the experts.  There is also implications that auction houses are in on some of this as they need material to sell.

 

 

-julie  (who should be working on the Forester model.)

 

[ClipperFan]

12 hours ago, Kenchington said:

They certainly look like very similar schooners, if not identical, while Steers' designs (with narrow bow and wide quarters) were a new departure at the time, unlikely to be encountered anywhere but New York.

 

But now we have two versions of the Buttersworth painting, one with a possible signal flag at the fore (blue cross on white) and the other either a plain blue (which the pilot seems to carry too) or maybe a US Navy jack, with stars on the blue.

 

And one last point: The claim that the painting shows Stag Hound with "partially furled sails" is a bit misleading. She has her skys'l yards set down, her  t'gan'sl's and royals furled, along with her main course and her cro'jick too But the sense of action and movement (enough that I can almost hear the canvas thundering, just from looking at the image!) comes from her upper topsails being clewed down and her outer jib hauled down likewise -- presumably to slow the ship enough to take the pilot aboard. Those sails are not about to be furled, but will soon be set again, to power her final approach to (I think) Sandy Hook.

 

They are remarkable paintings.

 

Trevor

Trevor, the title I supplied came directly from the museum's display. I agree more with your description which is more informative. The alternate work has a blue flag with white stars on it and it appears that the pilot boat does too. There's now two works that appear to depict the pilot schooner Mary Taylor which supports your conclusion that these are scenes of Stag Hound off Sandy Hook. My favorite Buttersworth piece remains the South Street Seaport work which has a more refined feel to it. 

Edited 10 hours ago by ClipperFan
removed an errant letter.

[ClipperFan]

10 hours ago, sheepsail said:

I've noted before,  to be suspicious of any Butterworth painting.  Especially ones that have something which does not fit the narrative.  Or adds new information. Forgers like to fill in missing gaps in the scholarship to prove province.  

 

Ken Perenyi forged dozens of them.  Designed to fool 'experts'  In the book Caveat Emptor he gives specific descriptions of how such is done, using stencils and replicating ships and flags from one to another.  Also how old materials and chemistry is used to fool the experts.  There is also implications that auction houses are in on some of this as they need material to sell.

 

 

-julie  (who should be working on the Forester model.)

 

@sheepsail thanks for pointing this out. It's noteworthy that there has been only one Buttersworth Flying Fish commemorative work, one possibly two Great Republic and a couple notably different Sovereign of the Seas pieces. We now have identified at least three up to five (?) very similarly posed of Staghound. Three have detailed provenance, two in reputable museums and are prominently featured in respected publications. It's suspicious that there appear to be so many duplicates of this one subject but how can you tell which are authentic and which are forgeries?

[ClipperFan]

Here's a headline confirming March 21st, 2025 donation of a large Buttersworth Staghound oil to the US Customs House Museum, Newburyport, MA. It looks even more impressive in this picture. The pilot boat clearly has the no 5 on her mainsail. Meanwhile I used cell phone filters and editing to approximate the original appearance of the dirty Forsythe-Wickes collection auction piece. It too has a pilot boat with no 5 on her. Compared to the cleaner piece at Princeton University, it looks like a fair approximation. Except now the pilot boat has no 3 on her. Finally, my favorite work with more background vessels has a pilot boat with the letter "L" on her, go figure.