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Notes
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The Cowes pilot cutter 'Fox' with the number '4 C' on the mainsail is seen here in gusty, grey weather, passing ahead of the quarantine hulk lying at anchor on the Motherbank (shoal) in the Solent, roughly between Newport and Ryde on the north-east side of the Isle of Wight. The hulk is the converted former 38-gun frigate 'Menelaus' which spent its last 60 years as a hospital and later quarantine ship, latterly opposite Binstead, I. o. W., until sold for breaking up in 1897. The need for such vessels was demonstrated in January 1866 when the emigrant ship 'Hertha' (870 tons, with 270 passengers and crew), on charter to the New York and Hamburg Steam Shipping Company, called at Spithead (off Portsmouth) while bound from Hamburg to New York carrying German emigrants.
In response to the suggestion the hulk be moved further away from Ryde and Binstead and nearer to Newport as less populated, the spokesman (H. A. Bruce MP) added: 'The Government are advised that the present position of the quarantine hulk is the best that can be found. It is one mile and three-quarters from the shore, in a well sheltered situation with good anchorage; the prevalent winds are south and south-west, which would oppose infection reaching the Isle of Wight.'
Fowles was an Isle of Wight artist living in Ryde, so the view is presumably from the nearby shore. The two projections above the hulk's deckhouse are suspended canvas-tube ventilators to help air the deckhouse or decks below. The ship flies the red ensign astern, and another red flag (possibly of a warning nature) on a light mast aft: other shipping in the distance is local Solent traffic. The picture presumably dates to before the 'Edgar' was also stationed as a second quarantine vessel on the Motherbank.
Title
The Pilot Cutter 'Fox' and a Quarantine Hulk off Binstead
Date
1865
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 20.5 x W 30.5 cm
Accession number
BHC3350
Acquisition method
gift of A. P. Austin, 1950
Work type
Painting
Inscription description
Signed and dated 1865 (lower left)