A TALE OF A LOST PAINTING

A TALE OF A LOST PAINTINGby Karl MacKeeman on Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 4:25pm Holman Hunt painted an image of Jesus with a lantren knocking on a door, it was called, "The Light Of The World", looking for an honest pawn broker or dealer of some kind. On television antique dealers, pawn brokers and antique pickers are all honest and fair dealers. In real life you have to be careful. I used to tag along with my Dad on some of his haircut jobs. This put us into a lot of cellers and kitchens in Halifax. Ira was one of Dad's pals from the Dockyard and Dad was cuting his hair. He was telling the story while his hair was being cut of how the 'wife' sent him out for fish & chips . Ira lived near Williams's Fish-n-chips on Robie Street, one of the best meals for a quarter you could get in Halifax. He said that on his way he saw a sale on steak at the local butcher and he came home with steak instead. Well this didn't go over big with Ira's Mrs. She wasn't accepting any subsitutes, so Ira had to wrap up the steaks and put them in the freezer. He wrote on the package "mistake" . While this tale was told I noticed a painting in the celler rafters and Ira gave it to me. It was a sea battle beween two frigates. One frigate was flying the stars and stripes and one was flying the white ensign on the mizzen stay sail boom. I knew a frigate was any ship of under 50 guns. I did not know much about the War of 1812 in those days except that it was fought around 1812 and Lidwig Beethoven(1770-1827) wrote a piece dedicated to it. Later research told me it was very close to a world- wide conflict that invovoved most of Europe being invaded by Napolian's vast Armies. It included a US invasion of Canada and a French attack on Russia, Spain, Portugal and Italy. In Nova Scotia we were poorly defended from U.S. invasion and Privateers. I took the painting to a dealer near Gottengin Street who told me it wasn't valuable because of the darkened varnish and I walked out with $15.00 . Later after the money was spent I read an ad in the paper seeking a painting of this same battle. What helped indentify the ships was the American ship flew a banner with the words, "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights". It wasn't until later I read about the presidents' collection of paintings in the oval office and the battle and it's importance to Halifax history. The President of the time was a Naval vetern so paintings of naval history was of interest to him. Later that same man who had survived the sinking of his torpedo boat in the South Pacfic had his brains splattered by a bullet in a car in Texas. Another American tradition. The Halifax Painter, O'brien painted several versions of the battle between the two frigates, HMS Shannon and USS Chesapeake . The Roal Navy was having difficulty maintaing the upper hand with privateers in in Nova Scotia. Shelburn and Charlotetoewn were sacked by US privateeers, who were stressing the Royal Navy's resouresss. Both HMS Guerriere and HMS Java were recentily sunk by USS Consitution (44 guns). A young officer named Philip Broke set out to remedy the situation by training his crew in gunnery and even paid for the shot for their practice. He sailed down to Boston and called the Yanks out for a fight. The USS Chesapeak was armed with more guns than the Shannon but the gunnery practice paid off. Broke wanted to take on "Ol Ironsides" as the nickname for the USS Consitution was called and came close to catching up with her after a chase that lasted many days. The American ship had taken several British warships some as close as the Grand Banks. Captian Broke was hoping to finally duel with the Consitutution on June 1st, 1813 but she was in for repairs. (That ship is still tied up and at the wharf in Boston) A letter was sent with an American prisoner to Captian Lawerence of the USS Chesapeke. I read a detailed report in the archives at Dalhousie. Few battles are as romantic as painters have painted them. It should be remembered that these were wooden ships and the effect of a broadside was a very horrific thing. Splinters and fragments of deck wood were nearly as effective as the shots themselves. That shot encluded not only the traditional round shot, but grapeshot which was a tied bundle of small balls that resembled a bunch of grapes and chain shot that was made of two half balls joined by a length of chain meant to damage rigging but did as much damage to crew as well. By the time grapples were used to bring both vessels along side for boarding , the decks of both sides were swiming in blood. Crews were armed with pikes, cutlasses, sabres, pistols, axes and muskets so the fighting was brutal and hand to hand. Both commanders were wounded but Captian Lawerence died shortly after the 1/4 hour battle was over. His last words were, "Don't give up the ship" which is used today as the moto of the US Coast Guard. It was said that the Americans lost over 60 and the Shannon about 30 men and boys but other reports put the figure much higher. Crew often died later from wounds. Doctors in those days delt with most wounds by amputation and that was why they were called "Sawbones" or "Bones" for short, a tradition that continued on the Starship Enterprise. The Prize was towed into Halifax and Captian Lawernce was buried at St. Pauls' . Some time later the body was exhumed and returned to his homeland. While in New York many years ago I came across a hugh monument to him near St. Patricks' dedicted to the American captian. A Nova Scotian coin had the likeness of Captian Broke on it and the Shannons' bell is in a museum in Halifax. The painting I had was never seen again but I believe it was copied from a popular engraving of the subject. What the experience taught me was the importance of historical research. I learned to be more careful and there was a few honest dealers that were helpful. Near the South Gate of HMC Dockyard there was an elder black lady, I think her name was Mrs. Johnson. She sold me a beautiful wicker creel that I still have and use to this day. She went to all the auctions and taught me a lot about the value of old junk.KDMNote: A fictionalised account of the battle can be read about in "Fortune Of War" by Patrick Obrian