The Philomela, off Harrington, Cumbria

For the twenty years of her existence, the Philomela was employed in the timber trade. She was destroyed at sea in January 1848 when her cargo of wood from Monte Video for Liverpool ignited spontaneously. Vessels like Philomela started to disappear by the end of the 19th century as iron became the favoured material for building ships. This work is a good representation of the type of wooden vessel that the early West Cumbrian yards built. The painting was stolen from Helena Thompson Museum in 1993 but recovered by police in 1994 and returned to the museum.