Painting of the Training Ship Kobenhavn by Frank Henry Mason 1943

A painting of the training ship Kobenhavn by Frank Henry Mason, 1943 This painting in oils on canvas depicts the British-built, but Danish-operated, cadet training ship the Kobenhavn. The vessel is shown in full sail in calm, summer conditions. The ship was built at the Ramage and Ferguson yard in Leith for the East Asiatic Company in Denmark. When launched in 1921, she was known as the Big Dane due to her being the largest sailing ship afloat at that time. She took around 8 years to build, with five masts, 56,000 sq. ft of sails and an auxiliary motor with on-board wireless transmission capability. Designed as a training ship for cadet sailors, she was classified as class 100 A1 by Lloyds, the highest available classification at this time. In 1925 she suffered a fire and had to put in to Plymouth for repair. In 1928 she was lost off of the Great Australian Bight. To this day very little has been discovered about the vessel’s demise as tragically nobody survived the wreck. Frank Henry Mason (1875-1965) A founding member of the Staithes group of artists. Born in Hartlepool, Mason was a sea cadet and then a marine engineer. In the 1920s and 30s, he designed a series of posters for various railway companies which were extremely popular and are still highly sought after. He exhibited his paintings and drawings widely and had a number of group and solo exhibitions. His work formed part of the 1932 Olympics art competition and after his death there was an exhibition of his work at the National Maritime Museum in 1973. His paintings are in a huge number of UK museum collections including the National Maritime Museum and the Imperial War Museum. Provenance: A fine private collection, acquired from Christie’s in 1998