PROVENANCE
Acquired from a Private Estate by the present Private Collection, Vancouver

The Ploughboy was a sidewheel steam-powered vessel that made regular trips between ports on Lake Erie and Lake Huron beginning in 1851. The boat was at the centre of numerous incidents, the most famous depicted in this image. On July 1st, 1859, the boat’s engine machinery snapped, nearly putting a hole in the hull. The strong Georgian Bay winds and waves pushed the the seemingly doomed boat around until one of its anchors miraculously caught an underwater rock ledge, preventing it from being smashed on the cliffs. Foremost among the survivors on board the ship was the premier of Ontario and future first prime minister of Canada, John A. Macdonald.

William Armstrong painted another known version of this image dated October 1912, which is in the collection of the Toronto Public Library.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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