ROBERTSON, Thomas

Captain Robertson was Victoria’s finest colonial marine artist and the outstanding recorder, of the golden decade of the clipper ships in Australia, during the 1850’s. No other Australian artist has captured the splendour of those mid-19th century marvels of maritime engineering and no artist is so little recognised. Our scant knowledge of him rests on a few superb works. Of all the shipping lines operating out of Great Britain to cater for the swell of immigration to the Victorian goldfields, the rivalry between two Liverpool shipping firms, James Baine’s Black Ball Line and and John Pilkington & Henry Wilson’s White Star Line is legendary. They raced to Melbourne and back, in widely publicised races, such as the ‘Great Ocean Regatta of 1855’, in which ‘Lightning’ with 162 days, beat ‘Red Jacket’ by two days. The competition resulted in faster mail from ‘home’ and greater comfort and convenience for passengers.