Perseverance

The print featured this week is from my painting which I called "Perseverance". Rather coincidentally, that is both the name of the schooner depicted, and the quality demonstrated by its captain.

I probably should have featured it last week, as the event depicted in the painting occurred on a New Year's Day - in 1820.  In an absolutely tremendous gale the day before, the "Perseverance" was capsized.  One by one, the crew died, until only Captain McDonald was left. With no compass but great determination, he gathered up one of the sails that he still had and tied it to the stump of a foremast and made his way to the Nova Scotia shore where his schooner was wrecked on the rocks and he succeeded in making it ashore on a plank.

Certainly quite a story of perseverance, and an added touch to the story to know that "Perseverance" was the name of the schooner.