Born on the fourth of July in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, James Allan Flood has been drawing ship images since he was old enough to hold a crayon. His avid love for ships and sea dates back to early childhood, when a doting uncle took him on an outing to visit ships in the Philadelphia dockyard. The visit inspired one of his earliest works depicting the ship Queen Mary at sea, which he first painted with poster paints when he was about age seven. In addition to being one of America's premier maritime artists, Flood has also built his own boat, the Duchess of Portsmouth, which he sails often near his home in South Florida.