Thomas Luny (1759-1837)

Designed with two decks, copper-sheathed and measured at 400 tons, the three-masted full-rigged merchantman Tyson was built in 1781 and first owned by J. Akers. Originally trading regularly between London and the West Indian island of St. Kitts under Captain T. Skelton, she was sold to Richard Wicksted of Liverpool in 1800 who, after 'doubling' her, put her on the Baltic run under Captain Trotter. Five years later she had been acquired by John Gladstone, also of Liverpool, who put her in the South American sugar trade to Demerara, British Guyana. Although her later history is unknown, a vessel of this same name but otherwise unidentified was wrecked near Holyhead, Anglesey, on 6th November 1816 which seems quite likely to have been her.

'Doubling' was a ship-repairing term for covering a wooden hull - externally or internally - with 2in.-4in. thick planks in order to strengthen it.

John Gladstone, later knighted, was a prominent Liverpool ship-owner and M.P., and also the father of William Ewart Gladstone, author, orator and three times Liberal Prime Minister in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Thomas Luny first exhibited in 1777 at the age of eighteen, and at this time was living with, and apprenticed to, Francis Holman (1729-1790). Luny's early style very much imitated that of Holman, and the master's influence is certainly in evidence in this painting.