Norseman 1881

Oil on Panel 12x18

The keel schooner Norseman was built in 1881 by C& R Poillon of Brooklyn for Multimillionaire property developer and prominent New York Yacht Club member Ogden Goelet. Her principal dimensions where

Length overall=131 ft

Length on the waterline 112 ft

Breadth 25ft

Depth 11ft 6

Norseman was built from oak, hackmatack( a north American Larch) and yellow pine.

Ogden Goelet used Norseman for cruising up until his death at Cowes in 1895. Under new ownership she was fitted with a 35hp auxiliary engine and renamed Alsacienne. She was successfully owned by Arch McNeil and W. T Brunt before returning to her original name Norseman in 1910 under the ownership of Charle Meyer. She appears to have passed to English ownership in the 1920s. She was eventually gutted by fire while in the ownership of Ronald Brewis in 1949.

The remains of Norseman can be found on the river Hamble near Southampton at Swanwick. See www.aquanaut.plu.com for details of the Norseman wreck.

Ogden Goelet was the instigator of the Goelet Cup , a very prestigious Cup raced for my the New York Yacht Club in the 1880s and 1890s. Upon his death the Cup was replaced by the Astor Cup still raced for.

C & R Poillon , Norsemans builder where responsible for some of the greatest American schooners built in the 1870s and 1880 including both Sappho and Dreadnaught