Signed T. Bailey, the importance of which in mentioned the brief biography on the artist William Paskell, this work depicts the lighthouse and keeper’s residence of Petit Manan miles off the Maine coast. The first lighthouse was ordered here in 1817 by President James Monroe due to the extensive bar between the island and the mainland. The 119-foot tower here is the second to be built, in 1854 and is Maine’s second tallest light, after Boon Island.

The painting has a nice composition of rocks, sea and sky in complement to the architectural important of the lighthouse. A stiff breeze pushes the trickle of smoke out of the chimney horizontally as well as the distant sails on the horizon. Many sea captains were well aware that by catching the northern current in relation to the curvature of the Earth that they would reduce their transatlantic sailing time along the East Coast.

The Blackwall frigates were the 19th century link between the lordly east Indiamen and the more modern pacific & orient passenger liners. These celebrated first class ships plied the seas from London to India and Australia. Period ship's portraits of these vessels are today hard to find and eagerly acquired by collectors of marine pictures.

Edouard Adam has skillfully portrayed the great Blackwall frigate Alumbagh during a moments rest in the french harbor of Le Havre. A capable ship, Alumbagh is noted as one of only two vessels to survive the devastating cyclone of Calcutta in 1864 which destroyed numerous ships within the harbor and river anchorages during that disastrous season.

Alumbagh was built in 1863 by Laing of Sunderland for Duncan Dunbar of London. She weighed 1138 reg. Tons and measured 190'l x 36'b x 23.8'd. She operated in the Calcutta passenger trade and was considered one of the finest of her type ever built. Adam has at once captured both her line’s beauty and an accomplished yet subtle sunset illumination to portray her in this excellent example of his work.