Louis Letouche

The Gorch Fock II Tall Ship of the German Navy

C. 2003

The Sailing Ship French School, early 20th century oil on canvas, unframed canvas: 14.75 x 22.75 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: good and sound condition

Sagres, 1937 by Louis Letouche (French 1924-2015) oil painting on linen canvas, stretched over board framed Framed size: 16 x 19 inches Superb oil painting by the well listed French marine artist Louis Letouche (1924-2015). The painting portrays the early 20th Century ship titled: Sagres, 1937. The three-masted ship was launched under the name Albert Leo Schlageter on 30 October 1937 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. The ship was named after Albert Leo Schlageter, who was executed in 1923 by French forces occupying the Ruhr area. Her first commander was Bernhard Rogge. Sagres is a sister ship of the Gorch Fock, the Horst Wessel, and the Romanian training vessel Mircea. Another sister, Herbert Norkus, was not completed, while Gorch Fock II was built in 1958 by the Germans to replace the ships lost after the war. Following a number of international training voyages, the ship was used as a stationary office ship after the outbreak of World War II and was only put into ocean-going service again in 1944 in the Baltic Sea. On 14 November 1944 she hit a Soviet mine off Sassnitz and had to be towed to port in Swinemünde. Eventually transferred to Flensburg, she was taken over there by the Allies when the war ended and finally confiscated by the United States. In 1948, the U.S. sold her to Brazil for a symbolic price of $5,000 USD. She was towed to Rio de Janeiro where she sailed as a school ship for the Brazilian Navy under the name Guanabara. In 1961, Ambassador Teotónio Pereira of Portugal, who was also a man of the sea...

Cuauhtémoc, 1982 by Louis Letouche (French 1924-2015) oil painting on linen canvas, stretched over board framed Framed size: 15 x 21.75 inches Superb oil painting by the well listed French marine artist Louis Letouche (1924-2015). The painting portrays the 20th Century ship titled: Cuauhtemoc, 1982. ARM Cuauhtémoc is a sail training vessel of the Mexican Navy, named for the last Mexica Hueyi Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc who was captured and executed in 1525. She is the last of four sister...

Herzogin Cecilie, 1902 by Louis Letouche (French 1924-2015) oil painting on linen canvas, stretched over board framed Framed size: 15 x 21.75 inches Superb oil painting by the well listed French marine artist Louis Letouche (1924-2015). The painting portrays the early 20th Century ship titled: Herzogin Cecilie, 1902. Herzogin Cecilie was built in 1902 by Rickmers Schiffbau AG in Bremerhaven. She was yard number 122 and was launched on 22 April 1902. Completion was on 7 June that year. She was 334 feet 8 inches (102.01 m) long, with a breadth of 46 feet 3 inches (14.10 m) and a draught of 24 feet 2 inches (7.37 m). Herzogin Cecilie was built for Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen. Unlike other contemporary German merchant sailing ships, the black Flying-P-Liners or the green ships of Rickmers, she was painted in white. She was one of the fastest windjammers ever built: she logged 21 knots at Skagen. The tall ships of the time remained competitive against the steamers only on the longer trade routes: the Chilean nitrate trade, carrying salpeter from Chile to Europe, and the Australian wheat trade, carrying grain from Australia to Europe. Both routes required rounding Cape Horn routinely, and were not well suited for steamers, as coal was in short supply there. Herzogin Cecilie was one of the fastest merchant sailing ships of her time, on a par with the Flying-P-Liners. The trip around Cape Horn from Portland (Oregon) to The Lizard (England) was done in 1903 in only 106 days. At the outbreak of World War I, she was interned by Chile, returning to Germany in 1920, only to be given to France as reparation, and subsequently sold to Gustaf Erikson (24 October 1872 – 15 August 1947) of Finland for £4250. She was homeported at Mariehamn.[2] As the freight rates for salpeter had dropped after the war, Gustaf Erikson sent her to bring grain from Australia. In so-called grain races, several tall ships tried to arrive first in Europe, to sell their cargo for a higher price, as told, for example, in The Great Tea Race of 1866 or The Last Grain Race. Typically, ships were loaded in the Spencer Gulf area, Port Victoria, South Australia or Wallaroo, South Australia, and travelled to Europe, with ports on the British Isles like Queenstown, Ireland or Falmouth, Cornwall being considered as the finish. After "winning" four times prior to 1921, she again won the grain race four times in eleven trips from 1926 to 1936. In 1927, when Herzogin Cecilie covered Port Lincoln (South Australia) –Falmouth, London and won a race against the Swedish ship Beatrice. Alan Villiers was on board, which would result in his book Falmouth for Orders, and later a trip aboard the barque Parma. Wreck of the Herzogin Cecilie in south Devon. With Sven Erikson as her Captain and Elis Karlsson her First Mate, the ship left Port Lincoln in South Australia on 21 January 1935, with a cargo of wheat, and after taking a more southerly route than usual, reached Falmouth for Orders on 18 May making her passage of 86 days the second fastest ever. Herzogin Cecilie was making for Ipswich in dense fog, when, on 25 April 1936, she grounded on Ham Stone Rock and drifted onto the cliffs of Bolt Head on the south Devon coast. After parts of the cargo were unloaded, she was floating again, only to be towed in June 1936 to Starhole (Starehole) Bay at the mouth of the nearby Kingsbridge Estuary near Salcombe, and beached there.On 18 January 1939, the ship capsized and sank. The remains of the ship sit at a depth of 7 metres at 50°12.82′N 3°47.02′W. The timber and brass portholes from the chart room...

English 20th century portrait of an English Frigate in full sail at sea in oils. A very well painted oil on canvas with great detail of a ship cutting through the sea at I'm sure great speed. The piece is an oil on canvas with I think gouache added to the waves to make them a brighter white. The piece is signed Mason and with some investigation, we are attributing this painting to the talented English painter Barry Mason...

This striking original oil on canvas depicts a magnificent tall sailing ship navigating rolling ocean waves beneath a dramatic sky filled with soft light and towering clouds. The art...

A powerful and dramatic original oil painting depicting a majestic clipper ship cutting through rolling ocean waves under a glowing, atmospheric sky. The vessel leans confidently int...

This elegant maritime oil painting by Karon depicts a magnificent tall ship sailing across a rolling ocean under a brilliant blue sky. The artist’s expressive brushwork captures both...