English: BPLDC no.: 09_03_000069

Subtitle: Dreadnought, The Sovereign of the Seas; Ketch; Drake's ship, Golden Hilden

Creator: King, Frederic Leonard (American painter and illustrator, 1879-1947)

Date created: 1934-1935

General format: oil on canvas

BPL Department: Special Collections, East Boston Branch Library

Dimensions: visible image 22 ½ x 84 in., framed 25 ½ x 87 in.

Description: (left to right)

Dreadnought, The Sovereign of the Seas Built in 1637 by Charles I, the dreadnought Sovereign might easily have been a contemporary of the Great Harry, which was 120 years older.

Ketch The ketch was a 17th century fore-and-aft rigged vessel with main mast and small mizzen set forward of the rudder post. Square sails were used.

Drake's ship, Golden Hind When Drake started out upon his famous voyage around the world in the year 1577, all he had was a vessel not larger than the Santa Maria of almost a century before. It was called, poetically enough, the Golden Hind, but it was in reality only a hundred-ton, three-master with just enough men to handle her.

Notes: The description above was written in 1935. Ships Through the Ages, originally four murals painted by Frederic Leonard King between 1934 and 1935, was commissioned as part of the Public Works Art Project for the Jeffries Point Branch of the Boston Public Library. In 1956, the Jeffries Point Branch closed, and each mural was divided into multiple paintings and relocated to the East Boston Branch Library where they are currently on display; however, several sections of the murals are missing