William Howard Yorke grew up fast under the tutelage of his artist-father William Gay Yorke in the Port of Liverpool. Born in Canada, he came to the port city as a child in 1855 with his family, where he remained the rest of his career and life. Yorke's earliest known painting, a ship portrait of BENARES in the Mystic Seaport Maritime Museum collection, is dated 1858, making the child an artist at eleven! While it is known that his father left for America in 1871, the son stayed behind.

A serious devotion to his profession made Yorke a success, especially among the captains and working sailors from the ships he portrayed, with many of his paintings traveling home with them to America, and other ports abroad. His finely detailed ship ...