Grand Turk of Salem
oil on canvas
unsigned 
16 x 21 3/4 inches.

After the original watercolor painting by Antoine Roux entitled Letter of Marque Grand Turk, 14 Guns, Entering and Saluting Marseilles, 1815 in the permanent collection of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. 

According to the Ship Registers of the District of Salem and Beverly, the brigantine Grand Turk was built in Wiscasset, Maine, in 1812 for thirty Salem owners. Measuring 102 feet in length, she carried over 90 officers and men and around 20 guns. She is described as having "a square stern, one deck, no galleries, and a billet figure-head." A celebrated privateer during the War of 1812, the Grand Turk was later used for mercantile voyages for illustrious politician and merchant William Gray (1750-1825) of Boston.