THOMAS GOLDSWORTHY DUTTON (BRITISH, 1819-1891)
The clipper 'Forfarshire'
Watercolour laid on card
Signed 'T.G. Dutton 1872' (lower left)
14½ x 28½in. (37 x 72.5cm.)

Built in 1867 by J. Morison of Sunderland for his own account, Forfarshire was a 211ft clipper of 1238 tons with a 37ft beam. Completed in March 1867 at a cost of £17,332 she was initially used for the London-India run. Sold to the Shaw, Savill in 1873 (Shaw, Savill & Albion Line when they merged in 1883) and used thereafter as an emigrant ship to Australia and New Zealand, her fastest recorded passage was 85 days between London and Dunedin at a time when the average was 100 days. Throughout her life she had a small but permanent leak which was never found and thus she required regular pumping. In 1894 she was severely storm-damaged when outward bound for Wellington and this seems to have prompted her sale to the Argentine on her return. Thereafter she passed 'out of commercial service' and was almost certainly broken up shortly after.