The four paintings we have by Joe Selby and the yachts pictured were all owned by Harry W. Hancock of Coral Gables, Florida (1871-1948). Hancock was the president and founder of the Hancock Manufacturing Co. of Chicago, makers of auto parts for Ford Motors. The company moved to Michigan in the 1920's where Hancock would own a series of yachts with the home port of Detroit.
Hancock was a member of the Detroit Yacht Club and each of the vessels pictured has the DYC club burgee on the bow as well as Hancock's personal burgee flying amidships. Given the date of these paintings 1938-1940, it's likely Harry had already retired to the Miami area where he met Joe Selby, whom he commission to create these paintings of his yachts. Clearly a passionate yachtsman, records show Hancock owned at least two other yachts by the late 1940's, the HARZEL and SOLANA. His son Richard succeeded him in the family business, later creating the Hancock foundation, a charitable organization benefiting the Jackson, Michigan community where the company was based.
The OCOEE, named for the Florida city near Orlando, was listed in several of the 1920's editions of the "Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States" with Hancock as the owner. In these volumes she is listed as a gas screw engine yacht, built in 1911. 27 gross tons, 66.6 feet in length and 12.8 breadth. The other yachts details are unknown.
