01 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings - With Footnotes, #112

David Lloyd Blackwood, CPE CSGA CSPWC OSA RCA 1941 - Canadian
Barbours Neptune II Leaving Newtown
Oil tempera on canvas 
50 x 60 in  127 x 152.4 cm
Private collection

Early in November 1932 the Neptune II  carried a load of salt fish from her home port of Newtown to St. John's, Newfoundland. After discharging her cargo, she took aboard a full load of provisions, and on Nov. 29, she sailed through the Narrows bound for home, about 100 nautical miles away.

There were 11 people aboard her that evening — Capt. Barbour and his five crewmen, together with five passengers. One of the passengers was a woman, Mrs. Humphries, whose husband was the ship's officer in charge of equipment and the crew. Soon after the little vessel left St. John's she was overtaken by a southerly gale which grew into "a steady and severe snowstorm." The gale continued throughout the night and the next day. One of her sails and the boom which carried it were swept away.

"Each steersman in turn was lashed to the wheel for an hour only. It was too cold for human flesh to stay there any longer," Barbour recalled.

The wind then came round to the west, and by early morning on Dec. 1, their third day at sea, Barbour and her crew were 150 miles northeast of Cape Bonavista, and had "overshot our home port, Newtown, by 120 miles." As the ship had no engine, Barbour and his crew had no choice except simply to run before it. They were blown steadily eastwards.

On Dec. 30, Barbour decided that he could not possibly sail back to Newfoundland and decided instead to make for the British Isles.

They made their landfall on Jan. 14, but had no idea where they were; they thought they were in the English Channel, but instead were just off the northern coast of Scotland. A day later, a lighthouse tender vessel towed them into Tobermory. For the first time in 48 days, they stood on land. More on the trip of Neptune II


David Lloyd Blackwood, CM, O.Ont (born November 7, 1941) is a Canadian artist, known chiefly for his intaglio prints, often depicting dramatic historical scenes of Newfoundland outport life and industry, such as shipwrecks, seal hunting, iceberg encounters, and resettlement. He considers himself a "visual storyteller."



Born in Wesleyville, Newfoundland, David Blackwood opened his first art studio in 1956, and in 1959 was awarded a scholarship to study at the Ontario College of Art. After graduating in 1963 he remained in Ontario, where he became Art Master at Trinity College School in Port Hope. Blackwood was involved in establishing an art gallery at Erindale College (a campus of the University of Toronto), now called The Blackwood Gallery in his honour. In 1976, the National Film Board of Canada produced a documentary film about the artist, Blackwood, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject. He was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1993, and of the Order of Ontario in 2002. In 2003, he became the first practising artist to be named Honorary Chairman of the Art Gallery of Ontario, which maintains a Blackwood Research Centre and a major collection of his work. More on David Lloyd Blackwood



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