The Rescue of U.S.S. Leyden

acrylic

The old first order lighthouse with its marvelous brick living quarters on the southeast side of Block Island Rhode Island had to be physically picked up and moved in a major feat of engineering. Because of dangerous erosion, the building was literally in danger of sliding into the sea The magazine article that about the light and its history opened with a spread that featured this painting of the rescue of the crew of a Spanish-American War era Navy tug, the U.S.S. Leyden, after the ship ran aground somewhere south of the light in 1907. The illustration was meant to demonstrate the reason that lighthouses are needed in the first place. The painting gave me a chance to extrapolate from a couple of old photographs how the scene might have appeared if the viewer had been out there at the time.