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About “Argus: Topsail Ketch”
Corki Rawlings had commissioned me to paint the Argus for her ex-husband, Ralph Whitford, in 2006.
Ralph, director of the Newport Sea Base back in the sixties, had managed to purchase her from R. Tucker Thompson (aka Tucker) for the Sea Base.
As the sail training vessel for Sea Explorers, Mariner Scouts and Boy Scouts, Argus took thousands of young adults on voyages to and from the Channel Islands. This continued until disrepair and maintenance costs became increasingly unmanageable towards the end of the twentieth century.
Argus had been built in Denmark in 1908, and had originally worked as a cargo ship in the Baltic and Scandinavian waters. She had been my third square-rigged vessel to sail and work on as a boy.
A bit about the former owner of Argus: Tucker Thompson
I came to know R. Tucker Thompson (aka Tucker) and his family back when I was around 14. They were then the strange visitors to the harbor living aboard this comfortable, Danish-built square-rigged ship with three masts called the Carthaginian. I had been drawn to their ship’s big black hull, which reminded me of the Charles W. Morgan.
I also got to know Tucker’s son, Tod. He was a blond American boy who only spoke Pidgin English – most likely because he grew up on the decks of ships while crossing oceans during his youth. Tod and I would often sail off together on his south sea island outrigger that the family brought with them aboard their ship.
The Thompson family and crew had a huge inspirational and lifelong effect on me as I would listen to them talk about experiences on faraway shores. Tucker’s family and crew were outside any box or societal profile, and this really drew me towards them.
The Thompson’s ship was moored at the Sea Base and that prompted me to join the Sea Scouts. I was one of the lucky ones to be chosen to do the maintenance work in the rigging and other tasks at the base. My skipper in the Sea Scouts, Robert H. Jessen, became my lifelong friend and mentor.
I was so impressed with the Thompson family’s Danish-built ship that I also bought a Danish ship some years later.
Similar artwork
See also the watercolor painting “Charles W Morgan: Mystic River” by Scott Kennedy. This subject of this painting also had a big black hull similar to Tucker’s Carthaginian.
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