Peter Rindlisbacher’s “Dawn of Canadian Naval Protection” features at the 42nd Annual Exhibition of the Canadian Society of Marine Artists, “Canadian Sovereignty on the Waters,” which opens this weekend at the Naval Marine Archive in Picton.

Paul Adamthwaite, curator of this exhibition, notes:

“This painting portrays a conjectural moment in October, 1867, when the BRITOMART-class gunboat HMS CHERUB conducted maneuvers with the Canadian gunboat PRINCE ALFRED off the port of Goderich. These two ships afterwards wintered together in Goderich Harbour.

“These ships had been stationed there in response to fears of a Fenian invasion from the U.S.  Great Britain sent over three gunboats to the Great Lakes and our newly created Canadian government purchased and armed some of our own gunboats to join them.  PRINCE ALFRED (originally the steamer MICHIGAN) was named for one of Queen Victoria’s sons.  This Canadian gunboat was actually larger and faster than the British gunboat CHERUB.

“The artist has blended a literal dawn with the figurative dawn of a naval force.  This attempt at naval defense occurred some forty years before the establishment of the formal Royal Canadian Navy in 1910. It was in the first months that Canada found it could not rely uniquely on Great Britain and had to actively support and finance its own sovereignty as a Nation.”