Lot 125: Attributed to Samuel Holburn Fyfe (Glasgow 1822-1905)

Attributed to Samuel Holburn Fyfe (Glasgow 1822-1905)
The Confederate blockade runner Lizzie at sea
oil on canvas
18 x 34½ in. (45.7 x 87.7 cm.)

with The Parker Gallery, London.

This intriguing steamer has been tentatively identified as the Lizzie, one of the last 'blockade runners' ordered for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Built by Henderson, Coulborn & Co. at Renfrew, Scotland, in 1864, she was a fast iron paddler measuring 230 feet in length with a 22 foot beam. It is recorded that she arrived in Havana, newly commissioned, in October 1864 but there is no evidence that she was ever gainfully employed since, by the time she was completed, the Union Navy's blockade of the southern ports was too tight and the Civil War itself was nearing its end.