Alexander Charles Stuart, Scottish/American, PA, 1831-1898, Watercolor, "The USS Octorara", Signed lower left, Dated 1863, 12 1/2" x 19" sight size, 18 1/2" x 24 1/2" framed, Some areas of foxing and staining, Stuart grew up in Glasgow, then a major shipbuilding capital, and acquired early drafting skills as an apprentice to a machinist. Stuart emigrated to Chester, Pennsylvania in 1861, and served in the Marines, then joined the Union Navy in 1863, when he began to create ship paintings and watercolors. After resigning from the Navy in 1866 he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen and worked primarily as an artist and illustrator for the merchant shipbuilding firms of John Roach & Son and Harlan & Hollingsworth, in Wilmington, Delaware.