Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen (1850-1921)
The American Steam-Sailer St. Louis
signed, dated and inscribed 'A. Jacobsen 1899. / West Hoboken N.J.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
22 1/8 x 36 1/8 in. (56.2 x 91.8 cm.)
Painted in 1899.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Lake View Gallery, by 1971.
Quester Gallery, Stonington, Connecticut.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1999.

Literature
H.S. Sniffen, Antonio Jacobsen - The Checklist: Paintings and Sketches by Antonio N.G. Jacobsen (1850-1921), New York, 1984, pp. 264-65, no. 10.

The S.S. St. Louis was built in 1894 by William Cramp & Sons in Philadelphia and entered service in 1895. She was owned by International Navigation Company (INC) and was sponsored by First Lady, Frances Clara (née Folsom) Cleveland Preston (1864-1947), wife of U.S. President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908). Under the employ of the American Line, she operated their route between New York and Southampton, England. During the Spanish-American War, the U.S. Navy acquired her and commissioned her in April 1898 under the name USS St. Louis as an auxiliary cruiser outfitted with heavy drag lines, four 5-inch rapid fire guns, and eight Ordnance QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss guns. She served for nearly 6 months, recognized for her instrumental role in destroying undersea cable communications of enemy forces and for her presence at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba on July 3, 1898. She was decommissioned in September 1898 and soon returned to merchant service under the American Line.

She enjoyed many years as a prominent passenger liner between New York and Liverpool and served an impressive roster of notable passengers, such as the newly married Alice Lee (née Roosevelt) Longworth (1884-1980) in June 1906 for her first voyage to Europe. In March 1917 just before the U.S. entered World War I, she was provided with an armed guard of sailors and equipped with three 6-inch guns to defend against enemy attack. This outfit would prove to be useful to her, as on May 30, 1917 just after the U.S. entered WWI, she succeeded in dodging a torpedo and apparently striking down the submarine which fired it, avoiding the same peril as the ill-fated Lusitania that perished by torpedo strike in 1915. She was acquired again by the U.S. Navy in 1918 and was commissioned that same year as a troop transport under the new name USS Louisville (SP-1644) to avoid confusion with the Navy's heavy cruiser, St. Louis. She was decommissioned from Naval service in September 1919 and returned back to her owners to operate again under the American Line. On January 8th, 1920, however, she caught fire in Hoboken, New Jersey while being reconditioned as a passenger liner. The fire left her irreparable with damages estimated at $1 million and in 1925, she was finally scrapped in Italy.