£680
The Cameronia entering New York harbour
(ref: 9132)
Signed, inscribed with measurements
titled to reverse
Pencil, pen and ink
11 x 8 in. (28 x 20.3 cm)
Provenance: The Artist's Studio
"The Cameronia enters New York harbour after an ‘independent’ voyage across the Atlantic, probably from Glasgow; ‘independent’ in this case meaning (I think) alone and not part of a convoy. The Cameronia was owned by Anchor Line, the Glasgow-based shipping company, and launched in 1920.(Her sister ship, built as the Tyrrhenia and renamed Lancastria by her second owners, Cunard Line, was sunk by German bombers off St Nazaire in June 1940 when she was evacuating British troops and civilians two weeks after Dunkirk. Between 3,000 and 5,800 people are estimated to have died - the largest loss of life in a single-ship disaster in British marine history.) Muirhead Bone had a special connection to the Anchor Line through his older brother, David Bone, who had a distinguished maritime career and was commodore of the Anchor Line’s fleet. During WW2, the Cameronia carried a total of 163, 789 troops and held the record as the largest troopship to serve the Normandy Beaches. She continued as a troopship long after the war and , now renamed Empire Clyde, was scrapped in 1958. (The crowd on the foredeck in this picture, btw, aren’t troops: America didn't enter the war till December 1941. I think they are passengers thrilled to reach the safety of New York after a risky voyage.)"
