William Alexander Coulter was born on March 7, 1849 in Glenariff, Ireland where his father was captain in the Coast Guard. At age thirteen the younger Coulter went to sea and for seven years his apprenticeship allowed him to learn every detail of the ships on which he sailed. He had a natural gift for drawing and color and during his off-duty hours aboard ship he sketched and painted.

After arriving in San Francisco in 1869, he worked as a sailmaker while continuing to paint in his leisure, and by 1874 was regularly exhibiting with the San Francisco Art Association. Coulter was for the most part self-taught except for a period of three years in the late 1870s when he studied in Europe with marine artists Vilhelm Melbey, Francois Mus...