The steamship 'New York'

This painting shows the ‘New York’ steaming in port broadside view with a vessel under sail in the left distance. The ‘New York’ flies the US flag.

Originally named ‘City of New York’, the ship was a 10,499 gross ton vessel with a clipper stem and three masts, with accommodation for over 1,000 passengers, built by J & G Thomson, Glasgow, in 1888 for the Inman Line. The distinctive black funnels with a broad white band are clearly visible.

In 1893, the ship was transferred to American Line, renamed ‘New York’ and put under the US flag. This painting shows the ship after an extensive refit in 1901–03, which included the replacement of the three raked funnels with two taller ones.

The ship was chartered as an auxiliary cruiser at outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898 and temporarily renamed ‘Harvard’. It was later commissioned as troop transport under the name ‘Plattsburg’ in World War I.

In 1922, the ‘New York’ left its namesake city for the last time for the American Black Sea Line on a voyage to Naples and Constantinople, where it was sold at auction by order of the US government, before being scrapped at Genoa the following year.

The painting is signed ‘H. McKlown.’