Thomas W. Wells had lifelong love of ships and seas

Thomas Winchester Wells was a man of the sea.

The amiable old salt was enchanted by tall ships under sail, the adventure and traditions of sailing and working in the elements on the deck of a vessel.

Later in life, he transformed nostalgia — such as his 1938 trip around Cape Horn on the four-masted ship Passat — into art. His paintings of the seas, and the old ships that sailed them, quickly became internationally known. Three of his paintings are in the permanent collection of the Seattle Art Museum.

Mr. Wells died of leukemia March 11. He was 87.

"He was reliving sailing as he was painting it," Mr. Wells' daughter, Jeannie Hamerslag of San Diego, said of his approach to art. "He was painting the scenes of his life. It was the passion of being on the sea and the expression of art."

Mr. Wells was born Oct. 20, 1916, in Chicago. A year later, he was adopted by Ralph and Frances Wells and raised in Menominee, Mich., a town on Lake Michigan's Green Bay.

He was drawn to ships and art at an early age. In elementary school, he would spend so much time drawing during class that his parents had to bribe him with money not to pursue art. When he wasn't doodling, he would sail on the Great Lakes aboard the family's schooner.

Concerned about his academics, Mr. Wells' parents sent him to the Northwestern Military and Naval Academy in Lake Geneva, Wis., when he was 16. After graduation, he attended Yale University and graduated in 1942 with a bachelor's degree in fine arts.

While a student at Yale, Mr. Wells spent his summers on the sea. One year, he sailed on a scientific expedition of the Arctic. Another year, he fished off the banks of Nova Scotia.

His grandest experience came during a sabbatical from school in 1938 and 1939, when he sailed from Europe to Australia via Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America.

On that voyage, he put together an extensive collection of still and moving pictures. Included in his documentation was the harpooning of porpoise, the capture of an albatross and sailors navigating during a hurricane and 30-foot waves.

His color-film footage was among the first to document a trip around Cape Horn and is in many maritime museums.

"I think he liked the camaraderie of sailors," Hamerslag said. "He felt he was of Norwegian descent, even though he was adopted."

After college graduation, Mr. Wells joined the Navy to serve in World War II. During stints in the South Atlantic and Aleutian Islands, he was a flag quartermaster, communications officer and salvage diver. He left the Navy in 1946 as a lieutenant j.g.

That same year, Mr. Wells married Wanda Zallinger of Seattle. She was the sister of his college roommate, Rudy Zallinger. The two started a family in the Sand Point area, and Mr. Wells worked for nearly 20 years as a technical illustrator at the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington.

It was after his retirement that Wanda encouraged him to devote more of his time to oil painting. Drawing from his experiences, Mr. Wells began painting with gusto — steamships passing sailing ships on Puget Sound, grain ships loading in Australia, schooners racing off California. Soon he was participating in art shows around the country. He completed nearly 600 paintings during his life.

"It isn't really art, it's nostalgia," Mr. Wells said during an interview in the 1970s.

He received numerous awards and honors and belonged to many organizations. He was especially proud of his membership in the Association of International Cape Horners and was a president of the Puget Sound Group of Northwest Painters and a fellow in the American Society of Marine Artists. The Seattle Yacht Club named him an honorary member.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Wells is survived by son Tom of Verlot, Snohomish County; and grandchildren Carrie and Blake Hamerslag of San Diego.

There will be no services. Donations may be made to the Tom Wells Artist Fund, c/o Bob Bryant, Puget Sound Group of Northwest Painters Scholarship Fund, 209 Raft Island, Gig Harbor, WA 98335.

J.J. Jensen: 425-745-7809 or jjensen@seattletimes.com