Oil Painting MS Achille Lauro Ship Ex Willem Ruys By William Eric Thorp C1966

• Take home a piece of maritime history with this beautifully rendered oil painting of the MS Achille Lauro Ship, formerly known as the Willem Ruys. Created by renowned British artist William Eric Thorp in 1966, this painting captures the spirit and grandeur of this iconic ship. Own a piece of art that will transport you to the golden age of ocean travel.

• This ship has been featured on a TV Documentary New Secrets of the Lost Liners Series 2 episode 3.
• Impress your clients & guests, make an art statement with this exceptional maritime steaming masterpiece to display on your office wall space or home interior.
• Signed at the bottom by the known marine British artist William Eric Thorp.
• Oil on canvas set in a fine traditional gilt frame.
• Circa mid 20th century dated on the plaque 1966.
• Good proportion sized frame being 58 cm wide and 48 cm high.
• Title “The Achille Lauro, 23,629 Tons, Ex Willem Ruys” by William Eric Thorp.
• In our opinion this is one of his very fine works.
• Your focus is first drawn to the small sailing yacht who is sailing away in the opposite direction, on the other flank a smaller Italian classic boat sailing parallel with the Lauro. Then the large delightful MS Achille Lauro ship who is sailing towards the left in side profile. You can view the iconic blue hue colour of the hull & opaque turquoise twin funnels which have a white star in each. Lifeboats along the side also the name of the ship shown by the stern area. Sailing along relative choppy seas above with light blue sky with some cloud cover.
• Biography of the artist William Eric Thorp a known British artist also a designer and model maker like his father, he was born in London in the year 1901. It was known that his dad who was John Thorp was an architect and also a model-maker. Thorp studied at the City of London School, & the known Herbert Dicksee was drawing master also at the Royal Academy Schools. Thorp love the sea and he was primarily a marine artist, he was made a member of PS in 1952 and RSMA in 1958, also being a member of Wapping Group, Langham and London Sketch Clubs and Chelsea Arts Club.
• He exhibited at the RA & the Paris Salon. The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich also the Guildhall Art Gallery do hold examples of his paintings. In his later live he lived in a nursing home, having settled in Nottingham, and did not work. He died in the late 20th century 1993. His paintings have sold at auction houses around around the world the current highest sold price was for $3895 US dollars which was for the Royal Yacht Britannia.
• History of the ship MS Achille Lauro was a cruise ship based in Naples, Italy. It was built between 1939 and 1947 as the ocean liner Willem Ruys for Royal Rotterdam Lloyd. In 1965 Achille Lauro bought the ship, had it converted into a cruise ship, and renamed it after himself. In 1985 it was hijacked by members of the Palestine Liberation Front. The ship was also involved in two serious collisions: in 1953 with the Oranje, and in 1975 with the cargo ship Youseff. It also suffered four onboard fires or explosions: in 1965, 1972, 1981, and 1994. In the last of these, in 1994, the ship caught fire and sank in the Indian Ocean off Somalia.
• Ordered in 1938 to replace the aging ships on the Dutch East Indies route, she was laid down in 1939 at Koninklijke Maatschappij 'De Schelde'. Scheepswerf en Machinefabriek in Vlissingen, Netherlands, for Rotterdamsche Lloyd (now part of Nedlloyd). Interrupted by World War II and two bombing raids, the ship was finally launched in July 1946, as Willem Ruys. The ship was named after the grandson of the founder of Rotterdamsche Lloyd, whom the Germans had taken hostage and shot during the war. Willem Ruys was completed in late 1947. At that time, the Rotterdamsche Lloyd had been granted a royal prefix in honour of its services during the war. Willem Ruys was 192 metres (630 ft) in length, 25 metres (82 ft) in beam, had a draught of 8.9 metres (29.2 ft), and measured 21,119 gross register tons. Eight Sulzer engines drove two propellers. She could accommodate 900 passengers. She featured a superstructure very different from other liners of that era; Willem Ruys pioneered low-slung aluminium lifeboats, within the upper-works' flanks. 
• The next ship to adopt this arrangement was the Canberra in 1961. Today, all cruise ships follow this layout, with fibreglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) used for lifeboat hulls. The ship continued in service. She was re-flagged in 1989 when the Lauro Line was taken over by the Mediterranean Shipping Company to become "StarLauro". In the evening of 30 November 1994 she caught fire off the coast of Somalia while en route to South Africa, with 979 passengers and crew aboard. At that time, Italian officials said the fire had been caused by a discarded cigarette. Later analysis suggests that the fire started in the engine room after one of the crankcases exploded which allowed cooling oil to get into the exhaust. Because of a lack of supervision, the fire burned out of control before its discovery.
• The crew battled the fire for several hours which was unsuccessful: first with hoses and then passing buckets from the swimming pool, and entertainer Moss Hills (who led rescue efforts during the sinking of MTS Oceanos in 1991) recalled that pouring water upon an oil fire was ineffective while making the conflagration worse. The vessel was abandoned in the morning after developing a list. A small number of crew and passengers were unable to board the main lifeboats due to flames coming up from the hull, so they climbed down a rope ladder from the stern to reach inflatable boats. Two died and eight were wounded during the evacuation and transfer to rescue ships. Among the ships that responded to the call were USS Gettysburg and USS Halyburton. Achille Lauro sank on 2 December 1994, which was witnessed by a fire tugboat that had arrived to assess salvageability. The wreck has not been located since.
• Source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company). 
• Port of registry 1947–1965: Netherlands Rotterdam 1965–1994: Italy Naples
  Ordered    7 May 1938 Builder    KM 'De Schelde' S&M, Vlissingen Yard number    214. Laid down 25 January 1939. Launched 1 July 1946 (Delayed due to WWII)
  Christened by HM Queen Wilhelmina. Completed 21 November 1947. Maiden voyage 2 December 1947. Out of service    30 November 1994. Identification Call sign: PIQF → IBHE. IMO number: 5390008. Fate Sank on 2 December 1994 off the coast of Somalia due to fire on board.
• General characteristics Tonnage 21,119 GRT as built 23,629 GRT after refurbishment. Length 642 ft (196 m)[ Beam 82 ft (25 m)[ Draft    29.3 ft (8.9 m)[ Deck 9 (6 passenger accessible) Installed power 2 × Sulzer/ Winterthur + 6 × Sulzer/de Schelde 32,000 bhp (24,000 kW) Propulsion 2 propellers. Speed 22.0 kn (40.7 km/h; 25.3 mph). Capacity 869 passengers (as built) 1,372 passengers Crew    300 .
• Provenance label for the Parker Gallery, Pimlico Road, London Private Collection. In the collection of Cheshire Antiques Consultant
• Hanging thread on the back ready for immediate wall display.
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• Condition report. 
• Offered in fine used condition. 
• Painting surface is overall good condition, having foxing staining and craquelure in placess. Frame which has various general wear, paint losses, scuffs & some chips, commensurate with usage & age. 
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Dimensions in centimetres of the frame

High (48 cm)
Wide (58 cm)
Depth (4 cm)