Affichages : 1327
Catégorie : PEINTRES
William Melbourne Smith was an “impoverished, misfit, hyperactive student who passed high school only because he could draw and paint,” wrote Paul Wood in his book “The Ingenious Life of Melbourne Smith.”
During his teenage years, he sailed four years with the Royal Canadian Sea Corps, built boats, visited shipyards and mastered “Dutton’s Nautical Navigation.” He skipped college and worked as a musician in Hamilton playing drums and trumpet “well enough to perform at both Polish weddings and in the backup bands for Nat King Cole and Sophie Tucker,” Mr. Waldron wrote. He became a sign painter, moved to Montreal, and served in the merchant marines.
Mr. Smith became a maritime watercolor painter of historic ships and, after moving to Annapolis in the 1960s, was graphic designer of “The Skipper” magazine, which featured his work on its covers.
In the 1970s, he learned that the City of Baltimore planned to build a reproduction of a Baltimore clipper. In his proposal he could scarcely contain his enthusiasm for his love of 19th-century vessels. In 1975 the city finance board approved a $365,000 budget for the 1812-era Baltimore clipper as a floating goodwill ambassador. The Pride was launched in February 1977 and commissioned in May. Mr. Smith served as its first captain but only remained a year. In 1978 he resigned from Operation Sail, the group that ran the ship, in a dispute.
Mr. Smith continued building historic reproductions of ships, including the topsail schooner Californian in San Diego, the Niagara in Erie, Pa., and the Lynx, an 1812 privateer. He planned to build the Sea Witch, a 170-foot long three-masted American clipper, but failed to secure financing for the project. While living in Florida for the last eight years, he continued pursing such projects as a reproduction of the USS Hornet and John Paul Jones’ Ranger.
Mr. Smith, whose attraction to ships and the sea was formed early in his life, died Feb. 2 from pneumonia at a West Palm, Beach, Fla., assisted-living facility. He was 87. Mr. Smith is survived by his wife of 25 years, Lilith “Lu-Lu” Arenas; two sons, Sean Smith of San Francisco and Simeon Smith of Winston-Salem, N.C.; and a daughter, Genevieve Kineke of Providence.
| William M. Smith - 17 DRAWINGS
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- America - 1851 Winning the Cup
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Magic - 1870 First Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Columbia - 1871 Second Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Sappho - 1871 Second Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Madeleine - 1876 Third Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Mischief - 1881 Fourth Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Puritan - 1885 Fifth Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Mayflower - 1886 Sixth Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Volunteer - 1887 Seventh Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Vigilant - 1893 Eighth Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Defender - 1895 Ninth Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Columbia - 1899 and 1901 Tenth and Eleventh Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Reliance - 1903 Twelfth Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Resolute - 1920 Thirteenth Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Enterprise - 1930 Fourteenth Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Rainbow - 1934 Fifteenth Defense
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| William M. Smith |
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Americas Cup Defenders -- Ranger - 1937 Sixteenth Defense
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