Edward Hopper’s sketch of the fast schooner Columbia was completed in Gloucester in 1923 or later: Columbia was built in Essex and launched in 1923. The Hopper drawing annotated ‘Britania’ is a misspelling. The Prince of Wales (future King Edward) commissioned the racing yacht (a cutter) Britannia in 1892. The racer was retooled several times.
Hopper traveled in the UK and Gloucester. It’s likely he saw Columbia in person in 1923 or on later Gloucester visits. If not he saw both boats reproduced in print and in the news. Gorgeous yacht and race photography was popular and circulated widely especially as marine photography advanced.
For Britannia, see British photographers, Alfred Beken and his son, Frank, who settled and worked in Cowes on the Isle of Wight from 1888 on.
For the fishing schooner Columbia see Boston photojournalist, Leslie Jones, collection Boston Public Library.
After 1923, news in the the 1920s: Britannia was racing regularly and Columbia and her crew disappeared in 1927.
Continue here for more Hopper boats in Gloucester.
Columbia in vintage photography
Incomparable American photographer and boat fanatic–as much as Hopper–Boston based photojournalist, Leslie Jones
Britannia in vintage photography
Images: Edward Hopper, Columbia, 1923. Whitney Museum. (Choppy and clouds- possibly sketched while here in Gloucester); Edward Hopper, Britania (sic), date unknown conjectured juvenalia, however he sketched yachts and boats from his youth on. Whoever annotated the sketch misspelled the boat. [Collection Whitney Museum of American Art]
Image: 2023. Columbia in Gloucester Harbor: (will add in soon)
A replica of Columbia launched in 2014 is a showstopper at the Schooner Festival in Gloucester, MA. see easternshipbuilding.com
Good Morning Gloucester 