After Ange-Joseph Antoine Roux (French, 1765-1835)

Ship Ulysses Entering the Harbor at Marseilles
watercolor on paper
unsigned
titled and inscribed Ship Ulysses Capt. Wm. Mugford of Salem Entering in the Harbourg [sic] of Marseille the 23rd March 1804, lower register
16 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches.

Provenance:

Arthur Ackermann and Son, New York City, New York;

Eldred's, East Dennis, Massachusetts, 1984, Lot 805.

The Ulysses, a 340-ton merchantman, was built in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and registered in Salem in 1798 to owner William Gray. The following year, she was commissioned as a private armed vessel captained by William Mugford (1773-1825) and equipped with eleven guns. After voyaging to India, Portugal, and Mauritius, the Ulysses set sail from Salem to Marseille in January 1804. Upon her entry to the harbor, she encountered a gale of incredible force, resulting in damage to the entirety of her rudder and stern post. Mugford rigged a temporary rudder that enabled the ship to dock safely at Marseille and for which he earned a medal from the American Philosophical Society

The original painting by Antoine Roux is illustrated in M.V. and Dorothy Brewington's Marine Paintings and Drawings in the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts: Peabody Museums of Salem, 1981 (no. 1171).