Click on the above image for a full size view.
The following biography is from the archives of askArt.
Hunter Wood was born in 1908 at Babylon, Long Island, the son of the famous marine painter Worden George Wood who served aboard the Clipper "Yankee" in the Spanish-American War and the great-grandson of John L. Worden who commanded the "Monitor" in its fight against the "Merrimac" in the Civil War.
After a brief period of formal education, Hunter Wood at seventeen, entered the New York Merchant Marine Academy, and his experiences at sea became the references for the subject matter of his paintings.
He was first on the training ship "Newport", a three masted barkentine, single topsail and top-gallant, the old order windjammer of the heavy canvas type sailing the seven seas.
At the end of his training on the "Newport", Wood was in charge of the fore top-gallant, the main topmast stay-sail and the mezzin gaff topsail. He had mastered the long oar and was given the rating of coxswain of the Captain's gig, or personal boat. His training on the "Newport" included being put overboard in test training, and handling the life boats in heavy seas, which gave him experience needed one stormy night with a high sea running when he had to put out to rescue a stricken man from the British freighter a thousand miles north of the Canaries, and again to take the tow-line from the Coast Guard Cutter "Chelane" when the "Newport" was disabled.
After his graduation from the first adventurous period at the age of twenty-five, Wood sailed as quartermaster for several of the large shipping companies, barging back and forth from one ship to another, the last of which was the "Leviathan."
In his maritime paintings, Wood attempts to have accuracy in details such as rigging and proportions.
Written and submitted October 2004 by Harry F. Marks