Built in Aberdeen in 1866, the largest composite ship ever constructed at almost a hundred meters in length, The Sobraon would spend the next quarter-century transporting wealthy passengers to Australia and returning with valuable bales of wool. The combination of iron and wood found in composite construction allowed for bigger vessels that were nonetheless lighter, and with significantly more hold space. The scale of the ship is evident from a photograph of sailors crowding its nearly two- hundred-foot-high masts, which supported more than two acres of canvas at full sail.
Passage aboard Sobraon was widely considered to be the best way to travel to Australia throughout the 1880s and 1890s, helped in no small part by a record of reliability during a period when Clippers routinely floundered. Her size allowed for unheard of amenities such as a three-tonne ice box, a water condenser, and a small contingent of livestock which produced fresh milk and eggs.
The comparative luxury of the voyage aboard Sobraon was well known throughout Australia. The well-known watercolourist Harold John Graham even produced a series depicting the amateur comedies put on by the crew for the entertainment of the passengers, an experience unimaginable for most travellers during the Age of Sail! The Australian state archives still retains a copy of the handwritten programme for a ‘Sailor’s Concert’, a fascinating memento from the early immigration period.
Dawson has captured the huge vessel breaching the large swells of the Southern Oceans, his low viewpoint creating a sense of upwards movement as the bow of the ship crests a wave. By employing a backdrop of clear light behind Sobraon, the artist is able to create a silhouette of intricate rigging while still conveying the dark clouds and surf that threaten to envelop the vessel.