368

WILLIAM HOWARD YORKE

Canada/United Kingdom, 1847-1921

The four-masted barque Kenilworth off Fastnet Rock, Ireland.

Signed and dated lower right "W.H. Yorke - 1890".
Oil on canvas, 24" x 36". Framed 31" x 43" under glass.
Condition: Overall excellent. Canvas has been relined, and has several very small areas of restorative in-painting.

  • Provenance:
    A private collection, Florida.
    Hyland Granby Antiques, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, 2004.
    The Kelton Collection of Marine Art & Artifacts.

    Note:
    Kenilworth was the last of five ships built for Williamson and Milligan's "Waverly" Line. Launched March 1887, Kenilworth set a record on her maiden voyage of 41 days from San Francisco to Newcastle. On her second voyage, in 1889, she sailed from Liverpool to San Francisco in only 128 days, but then caught fire and burned while lying at Port Costa waiting to take on cargo. She was declared a complete structural loss. Purchased at auction by Arthur Sewall and Company, the hulk was repaired at the Union Iron Works in San Francisco at a cost of $45,000, making Kenilworth the first steel-hulled U.S. flag merchant sailing ship. After several changes in ownership she was purchased near the end of the Prohibition Era, by the notorious Las Vegas mobster, bootlegger and gambler Tony Cornero and his partners, including Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. They roofed over her decks to create a spacious gambling hall. Cornero renamed the ship "Rex" and anchored her 3.1 miles off the Santa Monica pier, just beyond the legal three-mile limit and a quick ten-minute boat ride from shore. After a nine day standoff known to the press as "The Battle of Santa Monica Bay", the law eventually prevailed and Rex was shut down in 1940. She returned to service in 1942 in the lumber trade as the Star of Scotland . On a trip bound for Brazil from South Africa, she was torpedoed by U-159, ending her long career.

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November 18, 2021 9:30 AM EST
East Dennis, MA, US

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