Posner Maritime Art Collection
Ship “Game Cock” Built by S. Hall–East Boston, 1850
by A. Clive Edwards
Photoengraving
This image of the American Clipper Ship Game Cock is a vintage heliogravure print titled “Ship Game Cock Built by S. Hall – East Boston 1850,” after an original painting by A. Clive Edwards. It was printed by Foster Brothers of Boston in 1924 and measures 21 x 27 inches. A. Clive Edwards may have been the husband of Mrs. A. Clive Edwards, a painting restorer. The Smithsonian lists a painting by her: a copy of an Osgood painting of Nathanial Hawthorne of Salem. But whether she was the painter “A. Clive Edwards” is yet to be determined. Most of A. Clive Edwards’ paintings have been attributed to her, but we think this is probably incorrect. She did, for example, sign the Hawthorne painting as “Mrs. A. Clive Edwards.”
Another print similar to this one was done of the Flying Cloud, a copy of which is in the collection of the San Francisco Maritime Museum. The Smithsonian also lists an “A. Clive Edwards” as the painter of the watercolor of the Flying Cloud. In the July 1922 issue of Magazine Antiques, A. Clive Edwards, is listed of 133 Highland Avenue, Salem, MA, offering paintings of ships, as well as 18th Century whaling scene prints, for sale in a classified advertisement.
The Game Cock was a very famous American Clipper Ship. While built for speed, she never reached expectations, although she was very fast. She was built for retired Captain Daniel C. Bacon, a very successful Boston merchant. She was sold to Robert L. Taylor and others of New York, in the mid 1860s. Game Cock lasted for 30 years of hard service before being condemned at the Cape of Good Hope in 1880.
The Steamship Historical Society of America is dedicated to the history and preservation of powered vessels; however, it is the first to acknowledge that sailing vessels are the ancestors of powered vessels and therefore, sailing vessels are important to the history of the powered vessel. For this reason it is appropriate for paintings of sailing ships to be depicted in this Museum.