Noemie of Charleston Capt. J. Johnson Going into Havre 15 April 1852
Oil on Canvas
In it’s original gilt frame identifying the ship, captain, date and location
Signed LR “L. Gamain” ~ Honore Frederic Gamain (French 1803-1871)
Commentary: The Noemie, was a 600-ton packet designed to carry passengers and raw materials, primarily upland and Sea Island cotton and timber, from Charleston, South Carolina, to Havre, France. On the return leg of the journey, she carried goods manufactured in France and Europe for sale in the United States. Built and launched in 1847 by the shipbuilding firm of Currier & Townsend of Newburyport, Massachusetts, the Noemie was originally owned by Thomas T. Rogers & Co., of Charleston, and Capt. N. Hulberton, a commander well acquainted with the New York and Havre route.
The launch of the Noemie was recorded in the Boston Daily Atlas, 12/23/1847. “A beautiful ship called the “Noemie” was launched from the yard of Messers Currier & Townsend, Newburyport on Saturday morning. The Noemie is intended as a regular packet between Charleston and Havre; she is commanded by Capt. N. Hulberton who is an experienced and accomplished navigator, and formerly commanded in the Union Line of New York and Havre packets. She is 600 tons and is in every respect a first class ship, her structure having been superintended by Capt. Wm. Hammond of Marblehead. She is owned by Capt Hulberton and Messers Thomas T. Rogers & Co., Charleston.”
It is not clear when Captain John Johnson of Baltimore took over as her master and this portrait may have been commissioned by Johnson to commemorate his first voyage to Havre. He appears thereafter as in command in newspaper notices that could be located. In the early days of American Civil War, in May 1861, just weeks after the Secession and the first shots are fired at Fort Sumpter, Capt. Johnson signaled his southern sympathies by flying the flag of the Confederacy at ports in Copenhagen and Elsinore. His actions were noted with concern in a letter sent by Caleb Croswell, the U.S. Consul in St. Petersburg, Russian, to the Secretary of State, William H. Sewell (who in turn forwards the information to the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles and the Commander of the Atlantic blockading Squadron at Hampton Roads, Virginia, S.H. Stringham).
The Noemie appears in London ship registries through 1865 but the entries seem to have been based on information gathered in earlier surveys. In these entries Johnson is cited as her captain and “Mutett & Hutchett” as her owner or consignors. No further records relating to the Noemie have come to light and it seems likely that her name and primary use changed in the chaotic early days of the war. It is possible that further research in the archives of the Union and Confederate Navies will provide additional information on the Noemie’s fate.
About the artist: Louis Gamain, an accomplished marine painter, captured the Noemie against the backdrop of the harbor at Havre, under the command of her new captain, John Johnson of Baltimore, Maryland and flying the Stars and Stripes as well as the French flag and an as yet to be identified commercial pennant.
Born in the harbor town of Havre and son of a seaman, Louis Honore Frederic Gamain (1803-1871) had a deep affinity for sea that influenced his various careers and endeavors. He made models of ships in his youth and became a sailor; when illness required him to seek other employment; he maintained his ties to the seafaring world. He studied marine painting with another French artist, Théodore Gudin (1801-1880), and for decades in the mid-19th century painted American and European ships, many in the harbor at Havre.
Another venture for which more of his contemporaries may have known him was his entertaining and educational creation, Navalorama, a moving panorama of the sea. “Everything was in motion: the clouds moved across the sky, the sea was agitated, and the sails and rigging of the ships trembled with the force of the wind . . . ‘A sailor explains the pictures, the names of the ships, their maneuvers . . . the spectator on leaving the Navalorama is stimulated to make a sea voyage.’ ” Opened in 1838, at the entrance of the Champs Elysees in Paris, the tourist attraction was considered “well worth a visit” by the authors of Galignani’s New Paris Guide in 1846.
Condition: The painting survives in good condition with some in-painting to small areas of flaking. The canvas has been lined. The frame is original and was certainly included in the portrait “package” by Gamain. A portrait of the SS Atlantic by Gamian in a very similar frame is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.
Price:sold
Additional Photos
Detail of Inscription on Frame
References:
Bush, Richard, and Robert H. Woods. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Series I, Vol. 5. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1897.
Cobbett, Pitt. Leading cases and opinions on international law: collected and digested from English and foreign reports, official documents, parliamentary papers, and other sources. With notes and excursus, containing the views of the text writers on the topics referred to, together with supplementary cases. London: Stevens and Haynes, 1885. Accessed 19 September 2011.
Crockford, John. Reports of the cases relating to maritime law: decided by the Court of Admiralty, and by all the superior courts of law and equity; salvage awards. Vol. 2. London, 1868. Accessed 13 September 2011.
Currier, John James. History of Newburyport, Mass: 1764-1905, Vol. 1
Accessed 19 September 2011.
Galignani, A. and W. Galignani. Galignani’s new Paris guide. Paris: Galignani and Co., 1846.
Google eBooks, accessed 19 September 2011.
Howard F. Isham, Image of the Sea: Oceanic Consciousness in the Romantic Century. Peter Lang, 2004.
Google eBooks, accessed 19 September 2011.
“Launched,” The Boston Daily Atlas, December 23, 1847, p. 2.
