The Steamboat Julia

Artist Joseph Lee

Periodca. 1865 - 1870

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions31.3 × 51.6 in. (79.5 × 131.1 cm)

SignedSigned lower right, "Joseph Lee."

ClassificationsMarine and Seascapes

Credit LineGift of Julia Trask Connole, great-great-granddaughter of Benjamin Minturn Hartshorne, 1998

Object number1998.8

DescriptionShip portrait of the Steamboat Julia taken from the port side, bow to the left and stern to the right. The vessel, painted white with green trim, has an elaborate paddle box lunette of a sun face above the name JULIA painted on the siding of the lower deck. A blue flag with thirty stars flies from a bow flagpole, and an American flag flies from a stern flagpole. The house flag lettered "C.S.N.Co" for the California Steam Navigation Co. flies from a flagpole above the wheel house. A black-painted smoke stack is positioned just in front of the paddle boxes. Four other small flags fly from small flagpoles amidship, one of which is lettered "J" for the boat's name. Small groups of people are shown distributed on the first and second decks. The vessel is sailing in choppy water under a setting sun sky. The mountain ranges in the distant background resembles the landscape as seen from San Francisco Bay.
Curatorial RemarksMarine artist Joseph Lee was active in the San Francisco Bay area from about 1859 through 1880. He first described himself as a sign painter, but by 1872 referred to himself as an artist. Lee appeared in a member listing of the San Francisco Art Association in 1871, and as an exhibitor in the second industrial exhibition of the Mechanic’s Institute. He was considered the foremost painter of ship portraits on the West Coast.NotesThe steamboat Julia was built in 1864 for the California Steam Navigation Company. The small sidewheel vessel of 503 tons was named for Julia Norton Hartshorne (1838 - 1869), wife of the company’s president, Benjamin M. Hartshorne (1826 - 1900). The Julia was intended for service on some of the smaller rivers and waterways around San Francisco Bay. Unfortunately, the Julia experienced two major disasters that earned it an unfortunate reputation. In 1866, as the boat headed across the bay, the steam drum blew out, killing five passengers and injuring eleven others, some fatally. After being repaired, the little steamer continued to ply San Francisco waters for another twenty-two years. In the early morning of 27 February 1888, the Julia was torn apart by a horrific explosion as it approached the dock at South Vallejo. Flames consumed both the vessel and the entire dock area. Thirty people died and another twenty-eight were injured. Investigators believed that the cause of the explosion was fuel oil as the Julia had been converted to burn it instead of coal some years earlier. In the 1960s, the keel of a ship was raised from muddy waters during a dredging of the Mare Island Channel. Research led local historians to believe that it was the last remains of the ill-fated Julia.

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