Battles at Sea, 1700 to 1815
Quiberon Bay, where Hawke followed the French among the rocks as night came on. The Glorious First of June and the Vengeur du Peuple. The Nile, Camperdown, Copenhagen and the Victory at Trafalgar, then the Victory bringing Nelson home. The frigate duels of 1812, from the Constitution and the Guerriere to the Shannon and the Chesapeake.
This chapter of Ships in Paintings holds 94 works. For each one you will find the artist and, wherever the records allow, the date and where the original is kept; then what the ship brings to the picture, and the real ship behind it when there is one. See all 1,331 works on one page.
Marea can build any of these ships as a scale model, with the maximum detail the scale permits, finished to be inspected. We can build her as the artist saw her: the same rig, the same sails set, the same colours. It isn’t a copy of a painting. It’s the ship, stepping out of it.
This database was put together by Ai Refloat™, Marea’s own artificial intelligence, from the records of museums, maritime archives and published sources. Ai Refloat is still young & like any teenager, it can be a little volatile and unpredictable at times, but above all, it is learning fast. So this list may well contain mistakes and we welcome the input of everyone who knows these paintings, photographs and ships better than we do: listening, correcting and learning is one of the many ways we work towards perfection in this craft.
When no free image of a work exists, we show instead the museum or the place where the original can be seen.
Have you spotted a mistake? Tell us which painting, photograph or ship, and we will amend it accordingly. Tell us here
The works
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Torbay breaking the boom, with the Zeven Provincien and HMS Royal Sovereign Named ship
The Battle of Vigo Bay, 12 October 1702
Artist Ludolf Bakhuizen (1630 to 1708)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC2216)
Medium Oil on canvas
After six weeks of failure before Cadiz, Admiral Sir George Rooke's Anglo-Dutch fleet learned on its way home that a Spanish treasure fleet lay in Vigo Bay behind a boom of masts. Bakhuizen shows the opening of the action from the south shore, troops landing in the foreground while Hopsonn's Torbay, broadside on and firing her bow chasers, is about to break the boom, the Dutch Zeven Provincien behind her. The fleet flagship Royal Sovereign dominates the left under her red ensign, though, as Greenwich notes, she took no part. It is a painting of nerve and of a rich prize.
The real ship Torbay, 80 guns, carried Admiral Thomas Hopsonn through the boom at Vigo on 12 October 1702; the Anglo-Dutch fleet following astern captured every ship not already burnt by the French, with considerable treasure.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
Image: Ludolf Bakhuizen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
British fleet off Bastia Unnamed
The Bombardment of Bastia, 6 November 1745, 18th century
Artist Samuel Scott (c. 1702 to 1772)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0367)
Medium Oil on canvas
Samuel Scott, who specialised in marine painting and views of London, here looks down on Bastia from a commanding height, with the Corsican port and its high wooded hills spread out below. The British fleet has closed in on the harbour during the War of the Austrian Succession and the town has already caught fire. The museum admires how Scott's light falls on fleet and town alike, sharpening the architecture, while a subtle scheme of greens and browns holds this coastal landscape together, so that the bombardment reads as part of a quiet panorama.
The vessels A British fleet bombarded and occupied the Corsican port of Bastia in 1745, during the War of the Austrian Succession, 1740 to 1748.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Tri Ierarkha and the burning Ottoman fleet Named ship
The Burning of the Turkish Fleet in Chesma Bay (Sozhzhenie turetskogo flota v Chesmenskoi bukhte), 1771
Artist Jacob Philipp Hackert (1737 to 1807)
Where to see it Chesma Hall, Grand Palace, Peterhof State Museum Reserve, Peterhof
Medium Oil on canvas
Catherine the Great ordered a whole cycle of the Chesma victory from Hackert, a landscape painter living in Italy who was no battle painter. Participants in the battle, above all Count Alexei Orlov, criticised the inaccuracies of his night scene, and he explained that he had never seen a ship burn and explode. In 1771, on the Empress's instruction, the old 60-gun frigate Sviataya Varvara was blown up in the roads at Livorno before a crowd of thousands so that he could see one. This canvas for the Chesma Hall still has the moon over the burning bay; the corrected version went to the Winter Palace and is now in the Hermitage.
The real ship On the night of 25 to 26 June 1770 (Old Style) the Russian fleet under Count Alexei Orlov broke into Chesma Bay and destroyed the anchored Ottoman fleet with fireships and gunfire. Orlov flew his flag in the 66-gun ship of the line Tri Ierarkha, and the Ottoman commander's 100-gun flagship blew up.
Sources Wikipedia (RU) · Wikipedia · Wikimedia Commons
Image: Jacob Philipp Hackert, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Sviatoi Evstafii Named ship
The Destruction of the Russian Ship Sviatoi Evstafii in the Battle of Chios (Gibel russkogo korablya Svyatoi Evstafii), 1771 to 1772
Artist Jacob Philipp Hackert (1737 to 1807)
Where to see it Chesma Hall, Grand Palace, Peterhof State Museum Reserve, Peterhof
Medium Oil on canvas
Part of the twelve-canvas Chesma cycle that was set into the walls of the Chesma Hall at Peterhof in 1778 and 1779, this picture tells of the price paid a day and a half before the great victory. In the Chios Strait Admiral Spiridov's flagship Sviatoi Evstafii fought at close range with the Ottoman Real Mustafa; the burning mainmast of the Turkish ship fell across her deck and she blew up. Hackert shows the aftermath beside the fighting line: a ship ablaze, and men struggling in the water around a floating Russian ensign.
The real ship Sviatoi Evstafii was the flagship of Admiral Grigory Spiridov at the Battle of Chios on 5 July 1770 (New Style). In a close fight with the Ottoman Real Mustafa, whose burning mainmast fell on her deck, she blew up with the loss of 636 men; the Ottoman fleet then withdrew into Chesma Bay, where it was destroyed.
Sources Wikipedia (RU) · Wikipedia · Wikimedia Commons
Image: Jacob Philipp Hackert, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Valiant and HMS Namur Named ship
The British Fleet Entering Havana, 21 August 1762, 1775
Artist Dominic Serres (1722 to 1793)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0415)
Medium Oil on canvas
Serres, a Gascon who had run away to sea and probably reached England as a prisoner of war, knew Havana from his seafaring years. Here, once the obstructions at the harbour mouth had been cleared, Commodore Keppel's Valiant leads his squadron into Havana, an honour granted him by Admiral Pocock, whose flagship Namur follows with the bulk of a fleet of about 180 sail. The canvas belongs to a series painted for the Keppel family, three of whose brothers served at Havana. It is a picture of triumph after siege: a great fleet sailing in through the narrow entrance to the harbour.
The real ship Namur flew the flag of Admiral Sir George Pocock as Admiral of the Blue during the Havana expedition of 1762, the last major operation of the Seven Years' War.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Royal George and the Soleil Royal Named ship
The Battle of Quiberon Bay, 20 November 1759, 1779
Artist Dominic Serres (1722 to 1793)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0400)
Medium Oil on canvas
Hawke chased the French Brest fleet into Quiberon Bay as night came on, among ill-charted rocks and reefs where de Conflans assumed no one would follow. Serres puts Hawke's Royal George in the middle, flying his colour as Admiral of the Blue, with the Soleil Royal second from the right. He painted this version in 1779 for Captain William Locker, who had fought in the battle as a lieutenant in the Sapphire and later gave the picture to Greenwich Hospital. It records the victory that ended French plans to invade Britain and inspired the song Heart of Oak.
The real ship Royal George was Admiral Sir Edward Hawke's flagship at Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759. The French flagship Soleil Royal went aground in the bay near Le Croisic and was burnt the following day.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Lion, the Elizabeth and the Du Teillay Named ship
Action between HMS Lion and Elizabeth and the Du Teillay, 9 July 1745, 1780
Artist Dominic Serres (1722 to 1793)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0364)
Medium Oil on canvas
Aboard the Du Teillay, sailing from Saint-Nazaire in July 1745, was Prince Charles Edward Stuart on his way to raise Scotland. Two days out, Captain Piercy Brett's Lion intercepted her and her escort Elizabeth, and fought the Elizabeth from five in the afternoon until ten at night. Serres paints the third phase, at about eight: Lion's shot-away mizzen topmast hangs over her side, the Elizabeth is in the centre, and the Du Teillay fires at Lion from the right. Lion was too damaged to follow, and the prince sailed on to Scotland, Culloden and exile.
The real ship HMS Lion under Captain Piercy Brett lost 52 killed and about 110 wounded; the French Elizabeth lost about 57 killed, including her commander Captain Dau, and broke free to rejoin the Du Teillay, which carried the Young Pretender on to Scotland.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
The Thésée Named ship
The Battle of Quiberon Bay, 20 November 1759, mid- to late 18th century
Artist Richard Paton (1717 to 1791)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0397)
Medium Oil on canvas
Where Serres gave Quiberon Bay the flagships, Paton gives it a single terrible image: the French Thésée taking her last plunge in the foreground as the sea breaks over her forecastle, with Keppel's Torbay close by and still firing into her. Hawke had followed de Conflans into a bay of rocks and reefs as night came on, and the Thésée was sunk outright. The Soleil Royal and other ships fight on in the background, while Hawke's own flagship, curiously, is nowhere to be seen. The picture makes the cost of the most decisive naval battle of the Seven Years' War visible through one ship going down.
The real ship The Thésée was sunk outright at the Battle of Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759, in which Hawke's fleet destroyed the French Brest fleet and ended French plans to invade Britain during the Seven Years' War.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Sandwich and the San Domingo Named ship
The Moonlight Battle off Cape St Vincent, 16 January 1780
Artist Francis Holman (1729 to 1784)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0427, Caird Collection)
Medium Oil on canvas
Holman had his picture of the Moonlight Battle on the walls of the Royal Academy in the same year as the action. Unlike Serres, he puts Rodney's flagship Sandwich, 90 guns, in the foreground, right of centre and flying his flag as Admiral of the White, and shows the instant the Spanish San Domingo blew up ahead of her, spars flung into the air. Around them a running fight is under way that went on through the night. Six Spanish ships of the line were taken, including the flagship, while Rodney went on convoying supplies to beleaguered Gibraltar.
The real ship Sandwich, 90 guns, was Rodney's flagship when he met Admiral de Langara's Spanish squadron of eleven ships of the line and two frigates off Cape St Vincent on 16 January 1780; the San Domingo, 70 guns, blew up with all hands and six ships of the line were captured, including the flagship.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
The San Domingo and a British two-decker Named ship
The Moonlight Battle: the Battle off Cape St Vincent, 16 January 1780, 1781
Artist Dominic Serres (1722 to 1793)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0430)
Medium Oil on canvas
Rodney, sailing to relieve Gibraltar, caught a Spanish squadron off Cape St Vincent and chased it through a stormy night. Serres paints the battle by the light of its most dreadful moment: the San Domingo blowing up just outside the right edge of the canvas. Her flash lights the sails of a British two-decker raking a Spanish ship, and silhouettes the sternmost ship of the Spanish line. The museum notes how unusual the choice is: instead of Rodney's flagship Sandwich, Serres puts an anonymous two-decker at the centre, lit by fire in the dark.
The real ship The Spanish San Domingo blew up and sank with all hands at 16.40 on 16 January 1780. The chase went on through the night until 02.00, and Rodney lost none of his ships.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Ville de Paris and HMS Barfleur Named ship
The Battle of the Saints, 12 April 1782: surrender of the 'Ville de Paris', 1783
Artist Thomas Whitcombe (c. 1752 to c. 1824)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0446)
Medium Oil on canvas
The Saints is remembered for Rodney breaking the French line, and Whitcombe paints its climax: Hood's Barfleur pouring a broadside into de Grasse's flagship Ville de Paris as she strikes her colours. A boat full of cheering sailors pulls towards a dismasted prize, Rodney's Formidable fights on beyond, and the recaptured Ardent flies the red ensign over French colours. Little is known of Whitcombe, who probably spent most of his career in London, yet the museum finds in his ships a specific knowledge of life at sea.
The real ship Ville de Paris was the flagship of Vice Admiral the Comte de Grasse and struck her colours at the Battle of the Saints on 12 April 1782, the final sea battle of the War of American Independence.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Art UK
Image: Thomas Whitcombe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
The Franco-Spanish floating batteries Unnamed
The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782, 1783 to 1791
Artist John Singleton Copley (1738 to 1815)
Where to see it Guildhall Art Gallery, London
Medium Oil on canvas
Commissioned by the City of London in 1783 and finished in 1791, Copley's canvas covers more than 42 square metres, one of the largest oil paintings in Britain. In the background the floating batteries, designed by the French engineer d'Arçon to be unsinkable and unburnable, lie crippled and aflame after the British heated shot, while the governor, General Eliott, rides to the edge of the battlements to direct the rescue of Spanish sailors from the water. The ships are the defeated giants of the picture, and their burning makes the rescue its true subject.
The vessels Ten floating batteries carrying 5,260 men and 138 to 212 heavy guns attacked Gibraltar on 13 September 1782. Their timbers were packed with wet sand and water was pumped over them against fire, yet British heated shot set them ablaze, and gunboats under the naval commander Roger Curtis rescued Spanish sailors from the burning vessels.
Sources Wikipedia
Image: John Singleton Copley, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Hood's fleet at anchor off St Kitts Unnamed
The Battle of Frigate Bay, 26 January 1782, 1784
Artist Nicholas Pocock (1740 to 1821)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0436)
Medium Oil on canvas
At St Kitts in January 1782 Rear Admiral Hood faced a larger French fleet under de Grasse, and Pocock paints the British ships at anchor in an L-shaped formation, with Hood's flagship Barfleur at the angle, while the French come in to attack along the line. It is a picture about seamanship and position rather than carnage, even though Hood could not save the island from surrendering. Painted two years after the action and on a grand scale, more than two metres wide, it comes from a former merchant captain whose accuracy naval commanders sought out.
The vessels Hood's fleet fought de Grasse off St Kitts in January 1782, during the War of American Independence; the island still fell to the French. Three months later both admirals were at the Battle of the Saints.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Nicholas Pocock, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Magicienne and the Sibylle Named ship
Start of the Action between HMS Magicienne and La Sibylle, 2 January 1783, 1784
Artist Robert Dodd (1748 to 1815)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0456)
Medium Oil on canvas
Two evenly matched 32-gun frigates trade broadsides in the last weeks of the American war, and there is an irony in the match: the Magicienne, flying the blue ensign in the foreground, had herself been a French ship until the British took her in 1781. Dodd shows both already damaged, wrapped in gunsmoke, with a sail on either side of the horizon. The Sibylle came through the fight only to be captured by HMS Centurion the following month. Painted a year after the action, it is a pure frigate duel.
The real ship Magicienne, a French 32-gun frigate captured by the British on 2 July 1781, fought the French Sibylle on 2 January 1783; the Sibylle was taken by HMS Centurion on 22 February 1783.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Superb and the Héros Named ship
Battle of Negapatam, 6 July 1782, 1786
Artist Dominic Serres (1722 to 1793)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0448)
Medium Oil on canvas
Far from Europe, off Ceylon and the east coast of India, Sir Edward Hughes and the Bailli de Suffren fought five fleet actions, all furiously contested. Serres shows the third, at Negapatam, while both squadrons still hold their lines: the British on the left led by Commodore King in the Hero, Hughes fifth in line in the Superb, and Suffren also fifth in the French line in the Héros. No ship was lost, yet hundreds were killed and wounded. The picture is one of a set of eight large canvases Serres painted for Hughes to record his long duel with Suffren.
The real ship Superb carried Hughes's flag and the Héros carried Suffren's in the third of five actions fought off Ceylon and the east coast of India during the War of American Independence.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Héros Named ship
The Battle of Porto Praya, 16 April 1781 (Combat de la Praya), 1786
Artist Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy (1736 to 1804)
Where to see it Musée national de la Marine, Paris (3 OA 20)
Medium Oil on canvas
Rossel de Cercy was a French naval officer who began painting around 1770 and recorded the navy's actions of the War of American Independence; this is the opening blow of Suffren's voyage to the Indian Ocean. Finding Commodore George Johnstone's British squadron anchored in the neutral Portuguese harbour of Porto Praya in the Cape Verde Islands, with men ashore, Suffren attacked at once, leading in with his flagship Héros. The fight was inconclusive and his own ships took more damage, but Suffren beat Johnstone to the Cape Colony and reinforced its garrison.
The real ship Héros was Suffren's flagship on his voyage to the Cape and the East Indies. At Porto Praya on 16 April 1781 she engaged the two largest British ships, Hero and Monmouth, while the French briefly took several East Indiamen and the fireship Infernal.
Image: Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Junon and HMS Fox Named ship
The Fight of the Junon against the Fox, 11 September 1778 (Combat de la Junon contre le Fox, 11 septembre 1778), 1788
Artist Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy (1736 to 1804)
Where to see it Musée national de la Marine, Brest (3 OA 18)
Medium Oil on canvas
Off Brest in September 1778, in poor visibility, HMS Fox gave chase to two sails and found too late that one was the newly commissioned frigate Junon under the Vicomte de Beaumont. Unusually for a French ship, the Junon fired into her enemy's hull rather than her rigging, and her heavier guns brought down all three of the Fox's masts. After three and a half hours under fire, with most of his guns out of action and himself wounded, Captain Windsor struck. The Junon towed her prize into Brest, and Rossel, a veteran naval officer turned painter, recorded the victory.
The real ship Junon, a 32-gun Charmante-class frigate, fought at Ushant in 1778, took the 28-gun HMS Fox on 11 September 1778, helped capture HMS Ardent in 1779 and took the sloop HMS Rover in 1780.
Sources Wikidata · Wikipedia · Wikipedia (FR)
Image: Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Hermione and Astrée against HMS Charlestown and her convoy escorts Named ship
The Fight off Louisbourg, 21 July 1781 (Combat de Louisbourg, 21 juillet 1781), 1788
Artist Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy (1736 to 1804)
Where to see it Musée national de la Marine, Paris (3 OA 19)
Medium Oil on canvas
This is the Hermione, the frigate that carried La Fayette to America in 1780, in the greatest fight of her career. Off Spanish River on Cape Breton the light frigates Astrée, under Lapérouse, and Hermione, under Latouche Tréville, fell on a convoy of eighteen merchant ships and its escorts drawn up in line of battle. Hermione overtook her consort and poured broadsides into the Charlestown, then fired point blank into the armed ship Jack until she struck. As night fell the Charlestown, her main topmast gone, slipped away. Rossel painted it as part of the cycle of naval victories Louis XVI entrusted to him.
The real ship Hermione, a 32-gun Concorde-class frigate, was built at Rochefort, launched on 28 April 1779, and was among the first French warships to be copper-sheathed. She carried La Fayette to the United States in 1780, fought at Cape Henry and off Louisbourg in 1781, and was wrecked in 1793. A replica, also named Hermione, was begun at Rochefort in 1997.
Sources Wikidata · Wikipedia · Wikipedia (FR)
Image: Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Belle Poule and HMS Arethusa Named ship
The Fight of the Belle Poule against the Arethusa, 17 June 1778 (Combat de la Belle Poule contre l'Aréthuse, 17 juin 1778), 1789
Artist Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy (1736 to 1804)
Where to see it Musée national de la Marine, Brest (3 OA 7)
Medium Oil on canvas
Rossel, a naval officer who retired as a captain and turned to painting, recorded the fight that opened the war between Britain and France in 1778. South of the Lizard the frigate Belle Poule refused to be taken to Admiral Keppel's flagship, answered a warning shot with a full broadside, and fought the Arethusa for two hours until the British frigate lost her mainmast and dragged herself back under jury masts. The duel was so famous that ladies of high society invented a Belle Poule hairstyle, with a ship on top of the head. The picture belongs to the cycle Louis XVI entrusted to Rossel in 1786.
“I am the Belle Poule, frigate of the King of France; I sail from sea and I sail to sea.”
The real ship Belle Poule was built at Bordeaux between 1765 and 1767 and was chosen for the first French attempt at coppering a hull. She was captured by HMS Nonsuch off Île d'Yeu on the night of 14 July 1780.
Sources Wikidata · Wikipedia · Wikipedia (FR)
Image: Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Surveillante and HMS Quebec Named ship
The Fight of the Surveillante against the Quebec, 6 October 1779 (Combat de la Surveillante contre le Québec), 1789
Artist Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy (1736 to 1804)
Where to see it Musée national de la Marine, Brest (3 OA 12)
Medium Oil on canvas
Few frigate actions were fought harder. Off Ushant the Surveillante under Du Couëdic and the Quebec under George Farmer battered each other for hours until both were dismasted and entangled. Du Couëdic, wounded three times, led a boarding that was thrown back. Then fire from the Quebec's fallen sails spread through her and reached the magazine; she blew up with her captain, while the crippled Surveillante threw ropes to British sailors swimming near her, and treated the survivors as castaways rather than prisoners. Rossel's picture of the battle is a key exhibit of the Musée national de la Marine.
The real ship Surveillante was a French frigate; Du Couëdic died of his wounds in January 1780, admired by both French and British. HMS Quebec, a 32-gun frigate armed at the time with only nine-pounders, was destroyed by the explosion on 6 October 1779.
Sources Wikidata · Wikipedia · Wikipedia (FR)
Image: Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy; photo Med, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Junon, Gentille and HMS Ardent Named ship
The Fight of the Junon and the Gentille against the Ardent, 17 August 1779 (Combat de la Junon et la Gentille contre l'Ardent), 1791
Artist Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy (1736 to 1804)
Where to see it Musée national de la Marine, Paris (3 OA 24)
Medium Oil on canvas
In August 1779 HMS Ardent, a 64 manned largely by landsmen, sailed from Plymouth to join the Channel Fleet, unaware that a French fleet was at sea. Two days out she met a fleet that gave the correct reply to her private signal and ran down towards it: it was the Franco-Spanish fleet, somehow holding the Royal Navy's signal book. The frigate Junon fired two broadsides before raising her colours, more ships joined, and the Ardent struck after only sporadic return fire. Rossel painted this triumph of surprise for the cycle of French naval victories that Louis XVI entrusted to him.
The real ship HMS Ardent, a 64-gun third-rate built at Hull and launched on 13 August 1764, was captured by the French on 17 August 1779 and retaken by Britain after the Battle of the Saintes in 1782. The Junon, a 32-gun Charmante-class frigate under Captain Charles de Bernard de Marigny, posed as a British frigate before hoisting French colours.
Sources Wikidata · Wikipedia · Wikipedia (FR)
Image: Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
The Swedish archipelago fleet and the Russian galley fleet Unnamed
The Battle of Svensksund, 9 July 1790 (Slaget vid Svensksund den 9 juli 1790), 1792
Artist Johan Tietrich Schoultz (1754 to 1807)
Where to see it Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (NMRbg 23, Rosersberg Palace collection)
Medium Oil on canvas
Schoultz served in the Swedish archipelago fleet through Gustav III's Russian war of 1788 to 1790, aboard the galleys Kalmar, Svärdsorden and, in 1790, Seraphimsorden. His paintings are not rated highly as art; they are valued as records of the fighting by a man who took part, and have been used again and again to illustrate histories of the war. This one shows Svensksund, the greatest Swedish naval victory and the largest naval battle ever fought in the Baltic, where the king himself led the coastal fleet against the Russians.
The vessels The Second Battle of Svensksund was fought on 9 and 10 July 1790 in the Gulf of Finland, off present-day Kotka. Gustav III's coastal fleet of galleys, gun sloops and archipelago frigates dealt the Russian fleet a devastating defeat that ended the Russo-Swedish War.
Sources Wikidata · Wikipedia (SV) · Wikipedia
Image: Johan Tietrich Schoultz, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Queen Charlotte Named ship
Lord Howe on the Deck of the Queen Charlotte, 1 June 1794
Artist Mather Brown (1761 to 1831)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Medium Oil on canvas
The Boston-born Mather Brown went down to Portsmouth after the battle to sketch Queen Charlotte and her officers, then set the scene on her deck under the influence of his teacher Benjamin West's Death of General Wolfe. Howe stands sword in hand, Captain Curtis leans on a gun with a speaking trumpet, Captain Douglas clutches his wounded head, and the main focus falls on a dying army lieutenant, Nevile, struck by a French cannon shot. The picture was shown to George III and Queen Charlotte before going on view in Old Bond Street in 1795. The ship is present as a stage: the deck on which a victory was won.
The real ship Queen Charlotte, 100 guns, was Admiral Lord Howe's flagship at the Glorious First of June, 1794, when the Channel Fleet defeated the French in the Atlantic several hundred miles west of France.
Sources Wikipedia · Royal Museums Greenwich
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Queen Charlotte and the Vengeur du Peuple Named ship
The Battle of the First of June, 1794 (exhibited as Earl Howe's Victory over the French Fleet), 1795
Artist Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740 to 1812)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0470)
Medium Oil on canvas
De Loutherbourg, the scene designer of Drury Lane, went to Portsmouth to view the captured French prizes before painting this vast canvas. At its centre Howe's flagship Queen Charlotte, flying the Union flag, is locked in battle with the French Montagne, but the eye is drawn down to the foreground, where British seamen pull French sailors from the sea with hand, oar and boat hook while the Vengeur du Peuple sinks beyond. The museum reads it as a picture of drama and of compassion to a defeated enemy. Howe and his Master of the Fleet disapproved of its accuracy, yet it later hung at St James's Palace, and Turner's Trafalgar was painted as its pair.
The real ship Queen Charlotte, 100 guns, was Lord Howe's flagship in the Channel Fleet at the battle of 1 June 1794, fought far out in the Atlantic west of Ushant, in which six French ships of the line were taken and one, the Vengeur du Peuple, was sunk.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Philip James de Loutherbourg, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Brunswick and the Vengeur du Peuple Named ship
The 'Brunswick' and the 'Vengeur du Peuple' at the Battle of the First of June, 1794, 1795
Artist Nicholas Pocock (1740 to 1821)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0471)
Medium Oil on canvas
Pocock watched the Glorious First of June from the frigate Pegasus and filled a notebook with sketches and notes. Here the Brunswick has fallen foul of the Vengeur du Peuple, the two 74s grinding together while Brunswick's gunners fire alternately up through the Frenchman's decks and down below her waterline; on her other side the Achille is losing all her masts. The Vengeur would sink, an unusual fate for a wooden warship in battle. The holes in every sail carry the ferocity of the day better than any smoke.
“the ships dismasted seem'd to emerge from the smoke in such a manner that we could not see even who they had engaged last”
The real ship The Vengeur du Peuple, a French 74, sank after her long duel with HMS Brunswick at the battle of 1 June 1794, fought four hundred miles west of Ushant; six other French ships of the line were captured.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Nicholas Pocock, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Vengeur du Peuple Named ship
Heroism of the Sailors of the Vengeur, commanded by Captain Renaudin (Héroïsme des marins du vaisseau Le Vengeur commandés par le capitaine Renaudin), 1795
Artist Nicolas-Antoine Taunay (1755 to 1830)
Where to see it Musée de l'Histoire de France, Château de Versailles (MV 5518)
Medium Oil on canvas
Painted the year after the event, Taunay's small canvas is the legend at its freshest, when the Convention and Barère were presenting the Vengeur's crew as republicans who went down fighting rather than surrender. The title honours the sailors and their captain, Renaudin. In truth the ship had struck after her furious duel with HMS Brunswick and foundered some hours later as British ships began rescuing her men, but in 1795 the story mattered more than the facts, and pictures like this one kept the legend alive long after historians had discredited it.
The real ship The Vengeur du Peuple, launched in 1766 as the Marseillois, foundered on 1 June 1794 at the Glorious First of June after surrendering to HMS Brunswick, taking almost half her crew with her.
Sources Wikidata · Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Captain with the San Josef and San Nicolas Named ship
The Battle of Cape St Vincent, 14 February 1797, 1798
Artist Robert Cleveley (1747 to 1809)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0486)
Medium Oil on canvas
The companion to Cleveley's Victory raking the Salvador del Mundo shows how the day ended. At the centre three ships are locked together: Commodore Nelson's Captain and the two Spaniards he had taken, the San Nicolas and the San Josef. In the right foreground lies the captured Salvador del Mundo, her mizzen mast gone, with the captured San Ysidro beyond, and spars and sails float across the sea while the rest of the fleet pursues in the distance. The museum sees the victory as British performance outweighing Spanish numbers, and the tangle of hulls at the centre is where Nelson's own ship ended the day.
The real ship HMS Captain, 74 guns, under Commodore Nelson, took the Spanish San Nicolas, 80 guns, and San Josef, 112 guns, at Cape St Vincent on 14 February 1797, where four Spanish ships in all were captured by Jervis's outnumbered fleet.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Robert Cleveley, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Victory and the Salvador del Mundo Named ship
The 'Victory' Raking the Spanish 'Salvador del Mundo' at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, 14 February 1797, 1798
Artist Robert Cleveley (1747 to 1809)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0485)
Medium Oil on canvas
At Cape St Vincent Jervis's fifteen ships of the line took on twenty-seven Spaniards, and four were taken, two of them first-rates. Cleveley shows the opening of the action, when Victory, 100 guns, raked the Salvador del Mundo, 112 guns, and forced her to strike. The Spanish giant fills the right foreground, her stern lost in the smoke of the broadside, with only Victory's bow thrust out of the cloud. Cleveley, who had worked in Deptford Royal Dockyard and became marine painter to the Prince Regent, lets the smaller ship win out of the smoke.
The real ship Salvador del Mundo, a Spanish first-rate of 112 guns, struck to the British at Cape St Vincent on 14 February 1797 and was one of four Spanish ships captured.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Robert Cleveley, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Venerable and the Vrijheid Named ship
The Battle of Camperdown, 1799
Artist Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740 to 1812)
Where to see it Tate Britain, London (T01451)
Medium Oil on canvas
The British flagship Venerable fires her last broadside into the dismasted Dutch Vrijheid in de Loutherbourg's account of the victory off the Dutch coast in 1797. Tate places the picture within the art of the Sublime: the painter, chief designer of scenery at Drury Lane, cared more for dramatic effect than for documentation. Sailors cling to broken spars in the rough water, and high on Venerable's broken main royal mast climbs Jack Crawford, who went aloft under fire to raise the admiral's flag again.
“the horror and devastation attendant upon a conflict disputed with such obstinate bravery”
The real ship Venerable was the British flagship at the Battle of Camperdown, 11 October 1797, when the North Sea fleet defeated a Dutch fleet, then allied with France, off the coast of Holland. During the action she lost the part of a mast carrying the admiral's flag, which the sailor Jack Crawford climbed up to restore.
Image: Philip James de Loutherbourg, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
L'Orient Named ship
The Battle of the Nile, 1800
Artist Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740 to 1812)
Where to see it Tate Britain, London (T01452)
Medium Oil on canvas
De Loutherbourg chose the instant that stunned both fleets in Aboukir Bay: the explosion of the French flagship L'Orient. Nelson's own flagship Vanguard is set in the left foreground and the French line of battle runs away to the right. He had painted The Battle of Camperdown the year before, and the two canvases now hang together at Tate Britain. The blast at the heart of the picture gives it both its light and its dread, a single ship turned into the image of a whole victory.
The real ship L'Orient, 120 guns, was the flagship of the French Vice Admiral Brueys at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798. She blew up at 10 pm, killing the admiral and most of her company.
Sources Tate · Wikipedia · Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Philip James de Loutherbourg, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Nelson's squadron and the French fleet at anchor Unnamed
The Battle of the Nile, 1 August 1798, 1800
Artist Thomas Luny (1759 to 1837)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0512)
Medium Oil on canvas
Luny shows Nelson's leading ships coming into action at about half past six, in the failing light, as they attack the head of Brueys's anchored line in Aboukir Bay. The museum points out a revealing slip: the British line is on the wrong side of the picture, which suggests Luny worked from an engraving and so copied a reversed image. He painted the battle several times, at different times of day. Signed and dated 1800, it shows how quickly the Nile became a subject in demand, and how a painter could piece the battle together from prints.
The vessels At the Nile, Nelson's ships attacked the French fleet at anchor in Aboukir Bay, 15 miles east of Alexandria, on the evening of 1 August 1798; some passed round the bows of the leading French ships to engage from the landward side.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Bayonnaise and HMS Ambuscade Named ship
The Fight of the Corvette Bayonnaise against the Frigate Ambuscade, 14 December 1798 (Combat de la corvette La Bayonnaise contre la frégate anglaise L'Embuscade), 1801
Artist Louis-Philippe Crépin (1772 to 1851)
Where to see it Musée national de la Marine, Paris (9 OA 17)
Medium Oil on canvas
Crépin's most famous picture was commissioned by Napoleon for the Tuileries palace and shown at the Salon of 1801. It celebrates a fight off the Île de Ré in which the small corvette Bayonnaise, badly outgunned, backed sail, turned hard and rammed the frigate Ambuscade. Her bowsprit cut down the frigate's mizzen and became a bridge, and her seamen and a detachment of soldiers climbed onto the taller British ship and took her. Crépin, a pupil of Joseph Vernet and Hubert Robert, had himself served four years at sea as a topman and then helmsman.
The real ship Bayonnaise was a 24-gun corvette of the French Navy; HMS Ambuscade, a 32-gun frigate, was captured by boarding on 14 December 1798 and taken into French service as Embuscade. The painting hung at Saint-Cloud and later at Versailles before entering the Musée national de la Marine in 1935.
Sources Wikipedia (FR) · Wikipedia · Wikimedia Commons
Image: Louis-Philippe Crépin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Chevrette Named ship
The Capture of the Chevrette, 1802
Artist Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740 to 1812)
Where to see it Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol
Medium Oil on canvas
In 1801 the French corvette Chevrette lay in Camaret Bay under the protection of the shore batteries, apparently safe. The ship's boats of four Royal Navy ships blockading Brest, Robust, Doris, Beaulieu and Uranie, went in, stormed her and overpowered her crew, then sailed the prize out of the bay. Loutherbourg exhibited his painting at the Royal Academy in 1802, and the Scottish painter John Christian Schetky also painted the engagement. The corvette is both victim and trophy: a whole warship carried off by men in open boats.
The real ship Chevrette was a French Navy corvette captured at her moorings in Camaret Bay, Brittany, in 1801 by a cutting-out party from the British squadron blockading Brest, during the French Revolutionary Wars.
Sources Wikipedia
Image: Philip James de Loutherbourg, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Elephant Named ship
The Battle of Copenhagen, 2 April 1801, 1806
Artist Nicholas Pocock (1740 to 1821)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0529)
Medium Oil on canvas
Pocock painted Copenhagen for the engravings in Clarke and Macarthur's Life of Nelson, and the museum calls it a highly detailed representation of the action. Nelson's line lies anchored and fighting the Danish line between it and the city, the Elephant left of centre under his blue flag, while bomb vessels on the edge of the Middle Ground shoal throw shells over both fleets towards Copenhagen. This is the battle in which Nelson ignored his superior's signal to leave off action, and later offered a truce to save the Danish wounded. The anchored ships give the picture its grim, close stillness.
“I have a right to be blind sometimes”
The real ship Elephant carried Nelson's flag at Copenhagen on 2 April 1801, when his squadron fought the anchored Danish defence line to force Denmark out of the Armed Neutrality of the Northern Powers.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Art UK
Image: Nicholas Pocock, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Victory and the Redoutable Named ship
The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory, 1806 to 1808
Artist J. M. W. Turner (1775 to 1851)
Where to see it Tate Britain, London (N00480)
Medium Oil on canvas
When Victory came home with Nelson's body, Turner went to sketch her from every angle and questioned her crew about where the officers had stood. The result puts us high in the mizzen rigging, looking down on the crowded deck at the moment Nelson falls, with red-coated marines firing across at the Redoutable, the ship from which the fatal shot had come. Sails and cannon smoke close in on every side. A reviewer of 1808 wrote that it suggested the whole of a great naval victory in a single picture; Benjamin West thought the figures miserably bad.
“suggested the whole of a great naval victory, which we believe has never before been successfully accomplished”
The real ship HMS Victory was Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, where she fought alongside the French Redoutable, from which Nelson was shot. She is preserved at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Sources Tate · Wikipedia · victorianweb.org · royalnavymuseums.org.uk
Image: J. M. W. Turner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Victory Named ship
The Death of Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, 1806
Artist Samuel Drummond (1766 to 1844)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0547)
Medium Oil on canvas
Painted within a year of Trafalgar, Drummond's picture shows Nelson being carried down Victory's companionway so that the men around him would not lose heart. The museum reads the group as an homage to images of the Deposition from the Cross. Behind them, on the quarterdeck, sailors and marines are still fighting the Redoutable, and sails billow and swirl around the smoke to frame the scene. Drummond painted variations on this subject between 1806 and 1828 and published it as a mezzotint in 1809: the ship's own ladders and decks became the setting of a national image of grief.
The real ship HMS Victory was Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, where she was engaged with the French Redoutable; Nelson was struck by a musket ball fired from the Redoutable at about 1.30 pm. Victory is preserved at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · royalnavymuseums.org.uk
Image: Samuel Drummond, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Victory Named ship
The Victory Returning from Trafalgar, in Three Positions, c. 1806
Artist J. M. W. Turner (1775 to 1851)
Where to see it Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (Paul Mellon Collection)
Medium Oil on canvas
After Trafalgar Victory came home carrying Nelson's body, and Turner drew her at Sheerness in his Shipwreck and Nelson sketchbooks. In this canvas he paints her three times over, in the old tradition of ship portraits, so that the three hulls are one ship seen from different angles, apparently off the Needles. It was possibly shown at his own gallery in 1806 beside his Trafalgar, and was bought by Walter Fawkes. Instead of smoke and slaughter, Turner gives the flagship a quiet procession across the water, shown in her prime rather than battered.
The real ship After Trafalgar Victory put into Spithead for repairs to her masts in December 1805, then carried Nelson's body up the Channel to Sheerness, where Turner drew her. She is preserved at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Sources Google Arts & Culture · Tate · royalnavymuseums.org.uk
Image: J. M. W. Turner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Victory, HMS Temeraire, the Redoutable and the Fougueux Named ship
The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805: End of the Action, 1807
Artist Nicholas Pocock (1740 to 1821)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0549)
Medium Oil on canvas
At about five in the afternoon the guns have stopped, and Pocock takes a bird's-eye view from the south-east over a sea of wrecks. The most shattered British ships lie with their prizes in the foreground, Bellerophon without her main and mizzen topmasts, the Achille burning in the middle distance, Victory with only her foremasts standing and almost masking Villeneuve's Bucentaure, and the Temeraire dismasted between the captured Fougueux and Redoutable. The ten remaining enemy ships make their escape. Painted for the engravings in Clarke and McArthur's Life of Nelson, it is a precise portrait of the aftermath.
The real ship By the end of Trafalgar seventeen allied ships had struck and one had blown up, with no British ship lost. The Temeraire, 98 guns, ended the day dismasted beside the captured Fougueux and Redoutable.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Nicholas Pocock, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Victory Named ship
The Death of Nelson, 21 October 1805, 1807
Artist Arthur William Devis (1762 to 1822)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC2894)
Medium Oil on canvas
Devis sketched Nelson's body on board Victory when she reached England in December 1805, then drew from life the men who had been with him at his death, and joined them in one scene. The painting takes us into the cockpit, with Hardy standing over the admiral, the surgeon Beatty kneeling to feel his pulse and the chaplain Scott rubbing his chest. The museum describes how Devis joined portraiture to the imagery of Renaissance religious painting, bathing Nelson in a golden light. Here the ship is not seen from outside at all; she is the low, crowded space in which the victory was mourned.
“bathing Nelson in a golden light”
The real ship HMS Victory, 100 guns, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, returned to England in December 1805 carrying his body. She is preserved at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · royalnavymuseums.org.uk
Image: Arthur William Devis, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Drawing
HMS Victory Named ship
The 'Victory' Coming up the Channel with the Body of Nelson, c. 1807 to 1819
Artist J. M. W. Turner (1775 to 1851)
Where to see it Tate, London (D08183)
Medium Pencil and watercolour on paper
In this small watercolour Turner returned to his oil painting now at Yale, showing Nelson's flagship three times over in the tradition of ship portraits, so that one ship seems a small fleet, apparently south-west of the Isle of Wight off the Needles. It was long assumed to be a design for his Liber Studiorum prints that was never carried out. Turner had drawn Victory at Sheerness when she arrived with the admiral's body, yet here he shows her in her prime rather than battered, carried home on a fresh breeze.
“all three ships are one, and are generally thought to represent Nelson's flagship”
The real ship After Trafalgar Victory put into Spithead for repairs to her masts in December 1805, then sailed up the Channel to Sheerness with Nelson's body. She is preserved at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Sources Tate · Google Arts & Culture · royalnavymuseums.org.uk
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows Tate Britain, London. Photo: Rept0n1x, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Goliath, HMS Zealous and the French fleet at anchor Named ship
The Battle of the Nile, 1 August 1798, 1808
Artist Nicholas Pocock (1740 to 1821)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0513)
Medium Oil on canvas
Pocock, a Bristol man who went to sea at seventeen, commanded merchant ships and only took up painting in his early forties, shows the opening of the Nile at about half past six in the evening, looking across Aboukir Bay at sunset. Captain Foley's Goliath leads Nelson's fleet round the head of the anchored French line, and Zealous rounds the bows of the leading French ship to attack from the landward side, while the whole French fleet, L'Orient among them, lies waiting across the bay. Turbaned figures and palm trees in the foreground place us in Egypt. It is the calm before the night that followed.
The real ship Goliath and Zealous were 74-gun ships of Nelson's squadron. On the evening of 1 August 1798 they led the attack on Brueys's fleet at anchor in Aboukir Bay, rounding the head of the French line to engage it from the landward side.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Nicholas Pocock, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Victory and the Bucentaure Named ship
The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805: Beginning of the Action, c. 1808
Artist Nicholas Pocock (1740 to 1821)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0548)
Medium Oil on canvas
The first of Pocock's pair for Clarke and McArthur's Life of Nelson is a bird's-eye view from the north-east of the Franco-Spanish line being broken in two places. Nelson's division, led by Victory, fills the foreground as she rakes Villeneuve's flagship Bucentaure from astern, while Collingwood's division fights in the distance. Around them the museum identifies ship after ship, the Spanish Neptuno and San Agustín, the French Scipion and Formidable, the British Africa hurrying to join and the frigates. It is Trafalgar as an old merchant captain saw it: a problem of positions, engraved with a plan and key beside it.
The real ship Victory, 100 guns, led the left-hand, windward column of the British fleet at Trafalgar and broke the enemy line just ahead of its centre, raking Villeneuve's flagship Bucentaure, 80 guns. She is preserved at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · royalnavymuseums.org.uk
Image: Nicholas Pocock, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Spartan and the Cerere Named ship
HMS 'Spartan' and French Frigates: Beginning of the Action, Third of May 1810
Artist Thomas Whitcombe (c. 1752 to c. 1824)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0594), on loan from the Greenwich Hospital Collection
Medium Oil on canvas
Captain Jahleel Brenton sent his consort Success away, never expecting the Neapolitan squadron to come out and fight two British frigates. It did, with 400 Swiss troops aboard and seven gunboats in support, and the Spartan met them alone in the Bay of Naples. Whitcombe paints the opening of the two-hour action, Spartan firing her port broadside as the Cerere, Fama and Sparviero pass her, with Naples as the backdrop. Brenton fought standing on the capstan until grapeshot struck his hip; the Sparviero was forced to strike.
The real ship HMS Spartan, a British frigate commanded by Captain Jahleel Brenton, fought a Neapolitan squadron off Naples on 3 May 1810; the Cerere and Fama hauled off and the Sparviero struck.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Thomas Whitcombe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Spartan and the captured Sparviero Named ship
The 'Spartan's' Engagement with a Neapolitan Squadron, 3 May 1810: End of the Action
Artist Thomas Whitcombe (c. 1752 to c. 1824)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0595)
Medium Oil on canvas
The second of Whitcombe's pair shows the aftermath of Spartan's lone fight in the Bay of Naples. With 259 men and 46 guns she had beaten a squadron of 1,400 men and 95 guns; now she lies with damaged sails while men in her rigging set about repairs, and the captured brig Sparviero, her mast broken, floats astern under the British flag. Captain Brenton had been hit in the hip by grapeshot, a wound that ended his active career. The museum calls it a remarkable British success, and Whitcombe paints it quietly: a damaged frigate and her prize, with Naples beyond.
“hit in the hip by a piece of grapeshot”
The real ship HMS Spartan, 38 guns, under Captain Jahleel Brenton, fought a Neapolitan squadron off Naples on 3 May 1810. Ten British were killed and Brenton, his first lieutenant and twenty others wounded, against 131 Neapolitan killed or wounded, and the brig Sparviero was captured.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Thomas Whitcombe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Defence Named ship
The 'Defence' at the Battle of the First of June, 1794, 1811
Artist Nicholas Pocock (1740 to 1821)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0474)
Medium Oil on canvas
Seventeen years after the battle, which he had watched from the frigate Pegasus, Pocock returned to one ship in particular: Captain James Gambier's Defence, 74 guns, one of the most heavily engaged ships of the day. He places her dismasted in the middle of the picture, her deck and sides littered with broken spars and trailing rigging, still firing into the French Achille while another Frenchman rakes her from astern. Drawing on the notebook of sketches he had kept, Pocock turns a single battered 74 into a portrait of what a fleet action did to a ship.
The real ship Defence, 74 guns, was commanded by Captain James Gambier at the battle of 1 June 1794, fought four hundred miles west of Ushant, and was dismasted in the action.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Nicholas Pocock, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Reasonable and the Caroline Named ship
The Capture of Saint Paul near the Isle de Bourbon, 21 September 1809, 1812
Artist Thomas Whitcombe (c. 1752 to c. 1824)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0593)
Medium Oil on canvas
In September 1809 a British force landed five miles north of Saint Paul on the Île Bourbon, now Réunion, took the town and turned its batteries on the ships in the bay, which cut their cables and drifted ashore. Whitcombe shows Josias Rowley's Reasonable coming in with the Otter, two frigates and a schooner, while in the bay the French frigate Caroline fights the Sirius among the French shipping and two captured Indiamen, the island rising behind. It is a rare view of the Indian Ocean campaign that, the following August, brought British and French frigates to battle at Grand Port on Mauritius.
The real ship Reasonable was commanded by Sir Josias Rowley, who secured the French shipping at Saint Paul and refloated three ships that had gone ashore; the French agreed on 23 September to surrender all public property and the British withdrew on 28 September.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
Image: Thomas Whitcombe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Shannon and USS Chesapeake Named ship
Action between HMS 'Shannon' and USS 'Chesapeake', 1 June 1813
Artist T. Jordan
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0603)
Medium Oil on canvas
Jordan's picture carries the politics of the war in its flags. The Chesapeake, on the left, flies at her fore a white flag with the American cause written on it, Sailors Rights and Free Trade, while Broke's Shannon, famous for the gunnery drill of her crew, closes on the right. The fight lasted fifteen minutes; Broke led about fifty men aboard and was badly wounded, and Second Lieutenant Provo Wallis, who took the surrender, lived to become Admiral of the Fleet. A press cutting marking the start of Wallis's hundredth year, in 1890, is still stuck to the canvas.
“Sailors Rights / and / Free Trade”
The real ship Chesapeake, a United States frigate of 1799, was taken off Boston on 1 June 1813 by Captain Philip Broke's Shannon after an action of only fifteen minutes, in which her captain, Lawrence, was mortally wounded.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Drawing
USS Constitution and HMS Guerriere Named ship
Constitution and Guerriere (series of four), 1813
Artist George Ropes Jr. (1788 to 1819)
Where to see it USS Constitution Museum, Boston (2094.1 to 4)
Medium Watercolour and gouache
Painted in 1813, the year after the battle, George Ropes's four scenes follow the fight of 19 August 1812 in sequence. The son of a Salem shipmaster, Ropes had studied from the age of thirteen under the Neapolitan painter Michele Felice Cornè, and when he painted ships he did so with the greatest care for detail. The museum calls the series a statement of patriotic pride: a minor action in strategic terms, the victory lifted a public still reeling from the surrender of Detroit and showed that the young United States Navy could match the Royal Navy.
“a statement of patriotic pride”
The real ship USS Constitution met and defeated HMS Guerriere, a 38-gun British frigate commanded by Captain James Richard Dacres, on 19 August 1812.
Sources ussconstitutionmuseum.org
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the USS Constitution Museum, Boston, where the original is kept. Photo: NewtonCourt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
USS United States and HMS Macedonian Named ship
Engagement between the 'United States' and the 'Macedonian', 1813
Artist Thomas Birch (1779 to 1851)
Where to see it Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (one of several versions)
Medium Oil on canvas
Near Madeira on 25 October 1812 the American heavy frigate United States beat and captured the British Macedonian, and Thomas Birch painted the fight in 1813, at least three times. One version hung in the Oval Office under President Kennedy, others are in Boston and at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and a version by or after Birch is at Franklin Roosevelt's home; engravings spread the image in 1813 and 1815. The painting shows how fast the frigate victories of 1812 became pictures for American walls, a young navy's proof that it could fight.
The real ship HMS Macedonian, a Royal Navy frigate, was captured by the heavy frigate USS United States near Madeira on 25 October 1812.
Sources Wikipedia
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Shannon and USS Chesapeake Named ship
HMS Shannon Taking USS Chesapeake, 1 June 1813
Artist Thomas Buttersworth (1768 to 1842)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0601)
Medium Oil on canvas
Captain Philip Broke's Shannon met the Chesapeake off Boston on 1 June 1813 and took her in a fight the museum records as lasting only fifteen minutes but costing over 120 lives; the American captain, James Lawrence, was killed. Buttersworth, an English seaman of the Napoleonic Wars who became a marine painter, paints the two frigates at close quarters. The frigate duel is shown not as a spectacle of fleets but as two ships and two crews deciding everything in a quarter of an hour.
“a battle which lasted only 15 minutes but claimed over 120 lives”
The real ship Chesapeake, a 38-gun frigate of the United States Navy, was launched on 2 December 1799 and captured by HMS Shannon on 1 June 1813. Taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Chesapeake, she was later sold for timber.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
Image: Thomas Buttersworth, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Poursuivante and HMS Hercule Named ship
The Fight of the Poursuivante against the Hercule, 28 June 1803 (Combat de la Poursuivante contre l'Hercule), 1819
Artist Louis-Philippe Crépin (1772 to 1851)
Where to see it Musée national de la Marine, Paris (9 OA 146)
Medium Oil on canvas
A frigate had no business beating a ship of the line, which is why this action was painted. Off Saint-Domingue in June 1803, news of the renewed war had not reached the French when the Poursuivante, partly armed en flûte and short of men and shot, met three British 74s. Her companion Mignonne was taken, but Willaumez kept close to the shore, outmanoeuvred HMS Hercule and raked her with a broadside before escaping into Môle-Saint-Nicolas. The feat won Willaumez high praise, and in 1819 Crépin was commissioned to paint this large canvas in its memory.
The real ship Poursuivante was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, pierced for twenty-four 24-pounders but carrying only 22 of them and a crew of 150 in June 1803; HMS Hercule was a 74-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy.
Sources Wikidata · Wikipedia · Wikipedia (FR)
Image: Louis-Philippe Crépin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Prince of Wales Named ship
Admiral Sir Robert Calder's Action off Cape Finisterre, 23 July 1805, early 19th century
Artist William Anderson (1757 to 1837)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0540)
Medium Oil on canvas
Three months before Trafalgar, Calder was sent to intercept Villeneuve's fleet returning from the West Indies; the fleet passed him in thick fog and he cut off only two ships. The action was later judged a failure and a court martial ended his career. Anderson, a Scot whose marine views owe much to seventeenth-century Dutch painting, paints exactly what defeated Calder: the weather. His flagship Prince of Wales rides the green waves in the foreground while the two-deckers astern of her blur and fade into the fog.
The real ship Prince of Wales was Calder's ship in his action with Villeneuve's Franco-Spanish fleet off Cape Finisterre in July 1805.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: William Anderson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Victory, Santissima Trinidad and the burning Achille Named ship
The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, early 19th century
Artist Samuel Drummond (1766 to 1844)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0550)
Medium Oil on canvas
Drummond frames Trafalgar like a stage, with a British frigate bow on at the left, possibly the Euryalus, shot holes in her foresail, and a dark-sailed ship cut off by the right edge. Between them the battle unrolls: Victory in action with the Santissima Trinidad beyond, the Redoutable and possibly the Temeraire in the smoke, Royal Sovereign breaking the line and the Achille burning on the far right. In the centre French or Spanish sailors cling to a spar while two British boats row in to save them. Drummond gives Victory the open stern galleries she had before she was rebuilt with a closed stern.
The real ship The Spanish Santissima Trinidad, 140 guns, and the French Redoutable were both engaged close to Victory at Trafalgar, where the French Achille was seen burning.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Samuel Drummond, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Hermione (ex-HMS Hermione, in Spanish service) Named ship
The Cutting Out of HMS Hermione, 24 October 1799, early 19th century
Artist Nicholas Pocock (1740 to 1821)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0519)
Medium Oil on canvas
The crew of HMS Hermione had risen against their captain, Hugh Pigot, whom the museum calls psychopathically brutal, murdered him and his officers and handed the ship to Spain. She became the prize every British captain in the West Indies most wanted. At Puerto Cabello, anchored under a battery of 200 guns, she was found by Captain Edward Hamilton of the Surprise, who led his boats alongside; after a desperate fight her cable was cut, her sails loosed and she was carried out without a single Briton killed. Pocock sets her hull black against the fire of the shore batteries and the moonlit hills.
The real ship Hermione was a British frigate whose crew mutinied off Puerto Rico and surrendered her to the Spaniards at La Guaira. Recaptured by the boats of the Surprise at Puerto Cabello in October 1799, she was, in the museum's words, the most sought-after prize for the British in the West Indies; Hamilton was knighted for the exploit.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Nicholas Pocock, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Victory Named ship
The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, 1822 to 1824
Artist J. M. W. Turner (1775 to 1851)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0565)
Medium Oil on canvas
Turner's only work by royal command, and the largest painting of his career, was ordered by George IV to hang beside de Loutherbourg's First of June at St James's Palace. He borrowed an Admiralty plan of Victory, yet folded several moments of the battle into one: the foremast crashes down carrying Nelson's flag, signal flags spelling 'duty' come down from the mainmast, and the dying admiral is only a highlighted crowd by the mainmast. Seamen, Victory's captain Hardy among them, criticised it on technical grounds, and in 1829 the king gave it to Greenwich Hospital. What Victory brings here is not a ship portrait but the weight of the price paid for the victory.
“His intention was to capture the human drama of the battle rather than the facts of the action.”
The real ship HMS Victory was Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. She survives at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where visitors can stand on the spot where Nelson fell.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · royalnavymuseums.org.uk
Image: J. M. W. Turner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
L'Orient and the Spartiate Named ship
The Battle of the Nile: Destruction of 'L'Orient', 1 August 1798, 1825
Artist Mather Brown (1761 to 1831)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0510)
Medium Oil on canvas (unfinished)
In 1825 the British Institution invited painters to submit naval victories in competition for the new Naval Gallery at Greenwich Hospital, and George Arnald won with the Nile. Mather Brown showed a Battle of the Nile that year, and this signed but unfinished canvas may be it. L'Orient explodes in the background, but the foreground belongs to the sailors: the Spartiate's mainmast splitting and throwing men from the rigging, British boats hauling defeated Frenchmen from the water, and figures only sketched in on the bare canvas. Brown, a pupil of Benjamin West with phenomenal early success, died in poverty.
“died there in poverty, in a room crowded with unsold paintings”
The real ship L'Orient, 120 guns, flagship of the French Vice Admiral Brueys, blew up at 10 pm during the Battle of the Nile, killing the admiral and most of her company. The Spartiate, 70 guns, is shown with her mainmast breaking.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
L'Orient and HMS Swiftsure Named ship
The Destruction of 'L'Orient' at the Battle of the Nile, 1 August 1798, 1825 to 1827
Artist George Arnald (1763 to 1841)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0509)
Medium Oil on canvas
The whole picture is lit by one ship dying. L'Orient, Brueys's flagship, explodes at ten at night, her orange glow filling the sky, and for some minutes both sides were so shocked that the firing stopped. In the centre Captain Hallowell's Swiftsure surges on the wave of the blast, her sails billowing, while boats in the foreground haul men from the water and sailors cling to floating spars. Arnald painted it as one of four modern history subjects commissioned for the Naval Gallery of Greenwich Hospital, and the museum points out the danger that masts and sails flying through the air posed to every ship around.
The real ship L'Orient, 120 guns, flagship of the French Vice Admiral Brueys, blew up at 10 pm during the Battle of the Nile, killing the admiral and most of her company. Swiftsure, 74 guns, was commanded by Captain Benjamin Hallowell.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Victory Named ship
The Fall of Nelson, Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, c. 1825
Artist Denis Dighton (1792 to 1827)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0552)
Medium Oil on canvas
Dighton takes us onto Victory's crowded upper deck at the instant Nelson falls, and his real subject is how few of the crew have noticed. Hardy advances with his back to us, Sergeant Secker is already at the admiral's side, and Midshipman Pollard levels a musket at the French marksman who fired the shot. All around, gun crews sponge and prime, marines fire towards the Santissima Trinidad and the Redoutable, and a wounded powder monkey echoes Nelson's gesture. The museum notes one telling error: Dighton gave Victory the high solid gunwales and round bow she only received some years after Trafalgar, changes influenced by the battle's heavy casualties.
The real ship HMS Victory was Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar. The high solid gunwales and round bow added some years after the battle were influenced by the heavy casualties suffered there. She is preserved at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Caledonia Named ship
The Blockade of Toulon, 1810 to 1814: Pellew's Action, 5 November 1813, 1830
Artist Thomas Luny (1759 to 1837)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0604)
Medium Oil on canvas
For years the British watched Toulon, and by the autumn of 1813 the French fleet inside had grown to 21 ships of the line. When part of it came out to exercise in November and the wind turned against it, Pellew's inshore frigates tried to cut it off and larger ships, his flagship among them, closed in. Luny paints the moment a French two-decker, left behind, takes Caledonia's broadside on her quarter, her main topmast falling, while Cosmao Kerjulien's squadron runs for harbour under the high coast. Painted seventeen years later, it is signed on a floating spar.
The real ship Caledonia, 120 guns, was the flagship of Vice Admiral Sir Edward Pellew during the blockade of Toulon; on 5 November 1813 his ships made contact with a French squadron that nonetheless escaped back into port.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Canonnière, HMS Tremendous and HMS Hindostan Named ship
The Fight of the Canonnière against HMS Tremendous and HMS Hindostan, 21 April 1806 (Combat de la Canonnière contre le Tremendous), 1832
Artist Pierre-Julien Gilbert (1783 to 1860)
Where to see it Musée de l'Histoire de France, Château de Versailles (MV 1445)
Medium Oil on canvas
Off Natal in April 1806 the frigate Canonnière, sent to reinforce a French squadron that, unknown to her captain, had already been destroyed, met a convoy of eleven Indiamen escorted by the 74-gun Tremendous and the 50-gun Hindostan. After a seven-hour chase the 74 closed, and Captain Bourayne fought her off by superior seamanship, manoeuvring so that the big ship's batteries could not bear while threatening to rake her, until the frigate could escape. Gilbert shows the Canonnière on the left, Tremendous in the centre and Hindostan on the right.
The real ship The Canonnière, a 40-gun frigate under César Joseph Bourayne, sailed from Cherbourg on 14 November 1805 to reinforce Linois in the Indian Ocean and reached Île de France in April 1806, finding no trace of his squadron.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia · Wikipedia (FR) · Wikidata
Image: Pierre-Julien Gilbert, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Victory and the British fleet at Trafalgar Named ship
The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805: Death of Nelson (copy after Clarkson Stanfield), c. 1836
Artist Clarkson Stanfield (1793 to 1867), copied by George Chambers (1803 to 1840)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0545)
Medium Oil on canvas
Stanfield painted his great Trafalgar for the United Service Club in Pall Mall and showed it at the Royal Academy in 1836; this canvas is George Chambers's copy of it. The museum calls it an unusual reading of the battle, seen from the lee rather than the weather side of the British fleet at about half past two in the afternoon, with sky filling three quarters of the picture. Stanfield had himself been pressed into the Royal Navy in 1808 and served in the guardship Namur at Sheerness, and the vast sky gives the fleets a sense of scale.
The real ship HMS Victory was Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. She is preserved at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia · royalnavymuseums.org.uk
Image: Clarkson Stanfield, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Bucentaure Named ship
The Glorious Fight of the Bucentaure against Three English Ships, Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 (Combat glorieux du vaisseau le Bucentaure contre trois vaisseaux anglais), 1836
Artist Auguste Mayer (1805 to 1890)
Where to see it Musée national de la Marine, Paris (9 OA 15)
Medium Oil on canvas
Mayer, a Brest painter praised for his scrupulous accuracy in naval scenes, devoted six canvases in 1836 to the struggle of the Bucentaure, the French flagship at Trafalgar. In this one the two-decker, recognisable by her figurehead, is surrounded and fought to a standstill, her men clustered round the mainmast. The picture's records were probably lost in the Second World War and it was given a wrong title; the ship named as the Sandwich is generally held to be the Temeraire, with the dismasted Redoutable nearby, which puts the scene at the heart of the battle.
The real ship The Bucentaure, flagship of Vice Admiral Villeneuve, was raked by HMS Victory at Trafalgar and surrendered to HMS Conqueror. Her officers persuaded the prize crew to give up the ship on 22 October, but in the stormy dark she struck rocks near the Santa Catalina fort at Cádiz and sank on 23 October.
Sources Wikidata · Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia (FR) · Wikipedia
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Bellone, Minerve and Victor against HMS Nereide, Sirius, Magicienne and Iphigenia Named ship
The Battle of Grand Port, 23 August 1810 (Combat du Grand Port, 23 août 1810), c. 1837 to 1842
Artist Pierre-Julien Gilbert (1783 to 1860)
Where to see it Musée national de la Marine, Paris (9 OA 55)
Medium Oil on canvas
The only naval battle commemorated on the Arc de Triomphe was fought among the reefs of Mauritius, and Gilbert, official painter of the French Navy at Brest, set the whole British disaster in one frame. Captain Pym's four frigates tried to attack Duperré's squadron inside Grand Port and became trapped in the narrow channels between reefs and sandbanks. From left to right the canvas shows the Iphigenia striking her colours, the Magicienne and Sirius being scuttled by fire, the surrendered Nereide, and the French Bellone and Minerve, with the Victor beyond.
The real ship Bellone and Minerve were French frigates and Victor a corvette in Duperré's squadron. Of the British frigates, two grounded and were scuttled to prevent capture, Nereide was captured, and Iphigenia was seized as she left the bay by Hamelin's squadron from Port Napoleon.
Sources Wikidata · Wikipedia · Wikipedia (FR) · Wikimedia Commons
Image: Pierre-Julien Gilbert, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Romulus Named ship
The French Ship Romulus Fighting Three British Ships at the Entrance to Toulon Roads, 13 February 1814 (Combat du vaisseau français le Romulus contre trois vaisseaux anglais à l'entrée de la rade de Toulon), 1837
Artist Pierre-Julien Gilbert (1783 to 1860)
Where to see it Musée de l'Histoire de France, Palace of Versailles (MV 1455), on deposit at the Luxembourg Palace
Medium Oil on canvas
In the last weeks of the Empire a French division under Julien Cosmao sailed from Toulon for Genoa, and on 13 February 1814 the new 74 Romulus found herself engaged by three British ships of the line, among them HMS Boyne and HMS Caledonia. Her captain, Rolland, sailed so close to the coast that she could not be cut off and got back into Toulon. Gilbert painted it for Versailles more than twenty years later, a ship saving herself and her honour at the very end of the war.
The real ship Romulus was a 74-gun Téméraire-class ship of the line launched at the Toulon arsenal on 31 May 1812. She escaped the action of 13 February 1814, and by 1821 had been cut down into a frigate and renamed Guerrière.
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the Luxembourg Palace, Paris, where the original is kept. Photo: Moonik, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Vengeur du Peuple Named ship
The Ship Vengeur (Le vaisseau le Vengeur), 1837
Artist Ambroise-Louis Garneray (1783 to 1857)
Medium Oil on canvas
Garneray joined the navy as a seaman at thirteen, sailed with Surcouf and spent eight years in British prison hulks, so the Vengeur was more to him than a subject. He painted her in 1837, more than forty years after the event, when the patriotic story that her crew had gone down fighting rather than surrender, spread by the Convention and already discredited by naval historians, was still alive in popular memory; Jules Verne would later borrow it for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. The ship here is less a vessel than a national monument.
The real ship Vengeur du Peuple was a 74-gun ship of the line built at Toulon and launched in 1766 as the Marseillois. Renamed in 1794, she was disabled in a furious duel with HMS Brunswick at the Glorious First of June, surrendered, and foundered a few hours later, taking almost half her crew with her.
Image: Ambroise-Louis Garneray, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Vengeur du Peuple Named ship
The Third Battle of Ushant: the Vengeur du Peuple (La troisième bataille d'Ouessant), 1838
Artist Ambroise-Louis Garneray (1783 to 1857)
Where to see it Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest
Medium Oil on canvas
Garneray, once a sailor under Surcouf and for eight years a prisoner of the British in the prison hulks, painted the most famous legend of the revolutionary navy. At the Glorious First of June in 1794, which the French call the third battle of Ushant, the Vengeur du Peuple fought a furious duel with HMS Brunswick, surrendered, and foundered hours later as British boats began their rescue, taking almost half her crew with her. The Convention turned the sinking into the tale of a crew going down fighting rather than yield. Historians discredited it, but the legend lived on in paintings and in Jules Verne.
The real ship Funded by the Marseille Chamber of Commerce and launched in 1766 as the Marseillois, a 74-gun ship, she fought at the Chesapeake and the Saintes, was renamed Vengeur du Peuple in February 1794 and foundered on 1 June 1794 after her duel with HMS Brunswick.
Sources Wikidata · Wikipedia · Wikipedia (FR)
Image: Ambroise-Louis Garneray, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
The fleets of d'Orvilliers and Keppel, with HMS Victory Named ship
The Battle of Ushant, 27 July 1778 (Combat d'Ouessant), 1839
Artist Théodore Gudin (1802 to 1880)
Where to see it Musée national de la Marine, Paris (9 OA 31 D), located at the Musée de l'Histoire de France, Versailles
Medium Oil on canvas
Gudin, one of the first two official Peintres de la Marine and court painter to Louis-Philippe, was commissioned by the king to paint ninety pictures of French naval history for Versailles, and Ushant was a natural choice: the first major sea battle of France's war with Britain in 1778. Thirty-two French ships of the line under the Comte d'Orvilliers met Keppel's thirty some 100 miles west of Ushant. No ship was lost on either side and the result was indecisive, but it led to recriminations and political quarrels in both countries.
The real ship The French fleet sailed from Brest under Vice Admiral the Comte d'Orvilliers; Admiral Augustus Keppel commanded the British from HMS Victory. The battle of 27 July 1778 ended indecisively with no ships lost and led to political recriminations in both countries.
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Vengeur du Peuple Named ship
The Sinking of the French Battleship Le Vengeur, 1842
Artist Ernest Slingeneyer (1820 to 1894)
Medium Oil on canvas
A Belgian student of Gustaf Wappers made his name with a French ship. Slingeneyer's canvas of the Vengeur going down at the battle of 1 June 1794 measured sixteen square metres and caused a sensation when it was shown in 1842, admired for a freer, more spontaneous and warmer manner than academic painting usually allowed. It was compared with Géricault's Raft of the Medusa, and its success brought him royal patrons in the Netherlands and Belgium. The legend of the ship's last moments gave Romantic painting exactly what it wanted: heroism, despair and the sea.
The real ship Vengeur du Peuple, a French 74 of Villaret de Joyeuse's fleet, surrendered to HMS Brunswick and foundered at the Glorious First of June; the Convention spread the legend that her crew went down fighting rather than surrender.
Sources Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists.
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
USS Constitution and HMS Guerriere Named ship
The Constitution and the Guerriere, c. 1845
Artist Thomas Chambers (1808 to after 1866)
Where to see it Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (62.256.5)
Medium Oil on canvas
Thomas Chambers, born in England and working in America as a prolific marine and landscape painter, took his design from an engraving by Cornelius Tiebout after Thomas Birch, then pushed the story forward: the Guerriere is shown with every mast broken, while Old Ironsides stands beside her. When the Met's signed painting came to light in the 1930s and 1940s, modern art enthusiasts embraced Chambers as an American Rousseau. Painted some three decades after the battle, the picture shows how the duel of August 1812 had passed into popular memory, retold with the freedom of a folk painter.
“He took certain liberties with his source, advancing the action and showing the British ship, H.M.S. Guerrière, with all its masts broken.”
The real ship USS Constitution, nicknamed Old Ironsides, defeated the British 38-gun frigate Guerriere under Captain James Richard Dacres on 19 August 1812, one of the most famous engagements in American naval history.
Sources The Met · ussconstitutionmuseum.org
Image: Thomas Chambers, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Sviatoi Evstafii and Real Mustafa Named ship
The Battle in the Chios Strait, 24 June 1770 (Boy v Khiosskom prolive), 1848
Artist Ivan Aivazovsky (1817 to 1900)
Where to see it Aivazovsky National Art Gallery, Feodosia
Medium Oil on canvas
On 5 July 1770, 24 June by the Russian calendar, in the waters between Chios and the Anatolian coast, Admiral Spiridov in the Sviatoi Evstafii closed to within fifty to seventy metres of the Ottoman line and fought Hasan Pasha's Real Mustafa at close range. The Turkish ship was suddenly seen to be on fire; her mainmast came down on the Russian deck and the Sviatoi Evstafii blew up. It was the opening of the battle of Chesma, the first of a number of disastrous fleet battles for the Ottomans against Russia. Aivazovsky painted the scene in 1848 on a canvas more than two metres high.
The real ship Sviatoi Evstafii was Spiridov's flagship and blew up in the action of 5 July 1770 after the burning mainmast of the Real Mustafa, flagship of Hasan Pasha at the head of the Ottoman line, fell across her deck.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia (RU) · Wikipedia
Image: Ivan Aivazovsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Tri Ierarkha, Evropa, Rostislav and the burning Ottoman fleet Named ship
The Battle of Chesma (Chesmenskii boi), 1848
Artist Ivan Aivazovsky (1817 to 1900)
Where to see it Aivazovsky National Art Gallery, Feodosia
Medium Oil on canvas
Painted in 1848 from sketches Aivazovsky had made among the Greek islands and along the coast of Asia Minor in 1845, this is the night of 25 to 26 June 1770, when Russian ships broke into Chesma Bay and burned the Ottoman fleet at anchor. The Russian flagship Tri Ierarkha stands as a dark silhouette in the foreground while a boat carrying the crew of Lieutenant Ilyin's fireship pulls towards her; Evropa and Rostislav lie behind. The true subject is the fire: burning ships, flying masts, crimson smoke and the pale moon over it all. Scholars see the Romantic influence of Karl Bryullov here.
The real ship Tri Ierarkha was the flagship of the Russian fleet at Chesma, with Evropa and Rostislav among the ships that broke into the bay. Russian fireships, one commanded by Lieutenant Dmitry Ilyin, and gunfire set the anchored Ottoman fleet ablaze and destroyed almost all of it.
Sources Wikipedia (RU) · Wikipedia
Image: Ivan Aivazovsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
HMS Colossus, the Argonaute, the Bahama and the Swiftsure Named ship
The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, 1848 to 1849
Artist Richard Henry Nibbs (1816 to 1893)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0555)
Medium Oil on canvas
Rather than the flagships, Nibbs paints one group of ships in the thick of the battle. Colossus fires into the French Argonaute, the Spanish Bahama strikes her colours with a union flag placed over her side, and the Swiftsure, a British ship taken by the French in 1801, is about to be recaptured. Wreckage of spars and sails drifts across the foreground. Shown at the Royal Academy in 1849 and later made into a lithograph, it carries on its back a detailed inscription listing the ships involved, so that each hull in the smoke has its name.
The real ship Swiftsure, a former British ship of the line, had been captured by the French in 1801 and was retaken at Trafalgar. The Spanish Bahama struck to Colossus in the same part of the battle.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Richard Henry Nibbs, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Wachtmeister (Swedish ship of the line, captured) Named ship
The Battle of Oesel, 24 May 1719, 19th century
Artist Alexey Bogolyubov (1824 to 1896)
Medium Oil on canvas
Off the island of Ösel, now Saaremaa, in 1719 a Russian squadron of seven warships under Captain Naum Senyavin caught Commodore Wrangel's three Swedish ships and captured them all, for only eighteen Russian casualties. It was the first Russian naval victory won without ramming or boarding: the young navy of Peter the Great had beaten the Swedes by gunnery and seamanship. Bogolyubov painted the battle in the nineteenth century, long after the event. The Swedish flagship Wachtmeister, built in 1681, was taken after heavy fighting.
The real ship Wachtmeister, built in 1681, was the Swedish flagship at Ösel and was captured after heavy fighting, together with the frigate Karlskrona Vapen and the brigantine Bernhardus. The Russian squadron included Portsmouth, Devonshire and Natalia.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Alexey Bogolyubov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Confiance and the Kent Named ship
The Taking of the 'Kent' by Robert Surcouf in the Gulf of Bengal, 7 October 1800 (Abordage du Kent), c. 1850
Artist Ambroise-Louis Garneray (1783 to 1857)
Where to see it Musée d'Histoire de Saint-Malo (D.1975.2.1), on deposit from the Centre national des arts plastiques (FNAC PFH-1002)
Medium Oil on canvas
Garneray was there. As a seventeen-year-old ensign in Robert Surcouf's privateer Confiance, he took part in the boarding and capture of the East Indiaman Kent off the Sand Heads near Calcutta on 7 October 1800, a ship carrying 437 people after she had rescued the crew of another vessel. It was the only time he made money as a sailor. Between that day and this canvas lay eight years in British prison hulks off Portsmouth and a career as the first official painter of the French Navy. Few battle pictures carry such personal memory.
“But for piracy, I believe that I practiced about all kinds of navigation”
The real ship The Kent, a 40-gun East Indiaman of 824 tons under Captain Robert Rivington, was taken by Surcouf's Confiance off the Sand Heads near Calcutta on 7 October 1800.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Ambroise-Louis Garneray, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
USS President Named ship
The United States Frigate 'President' Engaging the British Squadron, 1815, 1850
Artist Fitz Henry Lane (1804 to 1865)
Where to see it National Gallery of Art, Washington (formerly Corcoran Gallery of Art, 2014.136.82)
Medium Oil on canvas
In January 1815, after a year blockaded in New York, the President tried to run the British blockade under Stephen Decatur and was chased by the squadron of Endymion, Majestic, Pomone and Tenedos; crippled by the Endymion, she was taken soon after. Fitz Henry Lane returned to that last stand thirty-five years later. A lone American frigate against a squadron is a theme of honour in defeat, and Lane gives it the full width of the sea.
The real ship USS President, a heavy frigate nominally rated at 44 guns and one of the original six frigates of the United States Navy, was built at New York under Forman Cheesman and later Christian Bergh and launched on 10 April 1800. Captured on 15 January 1815, she served in the Royal Navy as HMS President until broken up in 1818.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia · National Gallery of Art
Image: Fitz Henry Lane, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
USS United States and HMS Macedonian Named ship
Capture of H.B.M. Frigate Macedonian by U.S. Frigate United States, October 25, 1812, c. 1852
Artist Thomas Chambers (1808 to 1869)
Where to see it Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington (1992.18)
Medium Oil on canvas
Chambers gives this famous duel the look of a folk banner: a dark rolling sea curled with white, clouds piled like cotton, and two frigates in profile. On the right United States, her sails shot through but drawing, fires a broadside under a huge Stars and Stripes; on the left Macedonian, her rigging in ruins and canvas in tatters, still flies her red ensign. Near Madeira on 25 October 1812 Stephen Decatur's heavy frigate won a long, bloody fight, captured the British ship and brought her home, the first British warship ever brought into an American harbour.
The real ship USS United States, completed in 1797, was the first of the six original frigates of the US Navy, rated at 44 guns with thirty-two 24-pounders on her main deck. HMS Macedonian, under John Surman Carden, was captured by her near Madeira and brought back to the United States.
Image: Thomas Chambers, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Senyavin's squadron and the Ottoman fleet Unnamed
The Battle of Athos, 19 June 1807 (Afonskoe srazhenie), 1853
Artist Alexey Bogolyubov (1824 to 1896)
Medium Oil on canvas
Bogolyubov's picture of 1853 looks back to the main sea battle of the Russo-Turkish war of 1806 to 1812. Vice Admiral Dmitry Senyavin had spent weeks trying to draw the Kapudan Pasha Seyid Ali out of the Dardanelles; when he caught up with the Ottoman ships on the morning of 1 July 1807, they were drawn up in a straight line heading north, and he brought his ten ships of the line down on them. For a painter trained as a naval officer it was a lesson in tactics as much as a spectacle, painted in bright Aegean light.
The vessels The Battle of Athos (or Lemnos) was fought on 1 and 2 July 1807 (New Style) between Senyavin's ten Russian ships of the line and Seyid Ali's Ottoman squadron; it was a Russian victory.
Sources Wikipedia · Wikimedia Commons
Image: Alexey Bogolyubov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Infante Don Pelayo and Santísima Trinidad Named ship
The Battle of Cape St Vincent: the Pelayo comes to the Aid of the Santísima Trinidad (Combate de San Vicente: el navío Pelayo acude en auxilio del navío Santísima Trinidad), 1858
Artist Antonio de Brugada (1804 to 1863)
Where to see it Museo Naval, Madrid
Medium Oil on canvas
Spain remembered Cape St Vincent not for Nelson's boarding but for a rescue. On 14 February 1797 the Spanish flagship Santísima Trinidad, the largest ship afloat, had struck her colours when Captain Cayetano Valdés brought the Infante Don Pelayo to her aid; the flagship raised her colours again and later got away with two of her escorts. Brugada, a liberal exile who studied marine painting under Gudin in Paris and supported the ageing Goya on his walks in Bordeaux, later became honorary court painter to Isabel II. In 1858 he gave a heavy defeat its moment of honour.
The real ship The Santísima Trinidad, flagship of Admiral de Córdoba and mounting 130 guns at St Vincent, was the largest ship afloat at the time; she escaped after the battle and was captured at Trafalgar in 1805. The Infante Don Pelayo was a Spanish ship of the line under Cayetano Valdés.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia (ES) · Wikipedia
Image: Antonio de Brugada, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Rostislav and Chichagov's squadron at anchor Named ship
The Battle of the Reval Roads, 2 May 1790 (Srazhenie na Revelskom reide), 1860
Artist Alexey Bogolyubov (1824 to 1896)
Medium Oil on canvas
Bogolyubov, who left the Naval Cadet Corps as a midshipman in 1841 and was appointed painter to the Main Naval Staff in 1853, made the navy's history his subject, and this canvas recalls one of the Baltic fleet's steadiest days. On 2 May 1790 (Old Style) Admiral Vasily Chichagov kept his outnumbered squadron at anchor in a line in the Reval roadstead and let Duke Karl's Swedish fleet run past his broadsides in a strong wind. The Swedish gunnery went wide, their flagship drifted onto Rostislav's grapeshot, and the day ended in a clear Russian victory.
The real ship Rostislav was a 100-gun ship of the line and Chichagov's flagship at Reval, captained by his son Pavel Chichagov. The Russian force of ten ships of the line and five frigates lay at anchor in a line from Reval harbour towards the Viimsi peninsula.
Sources Wikipedia · Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia (RU)
Image: Alexey Bogolyubov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Vétéran Named ship
The Vétéran entering Concarneau (Le Vétéran entrant à Concarneau), c. 1861
Artist Michel Bouquet (1807 to 1890)
Where to see it Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest (D 875.2.1)
Medium Oil on canvas
In 1806 Napoleon's youngest brother, Jérôme Bonaparte, in command of the Vétéran, found himself alone after a hurricane scattered Willaumez's squadron. He cruised off Quebec destroying merchantmen, then brought his ship home through the British blockade. With the help of a sailor who had once fished these waters, he took a ship of the line into the shallow harbour of Concarneau. Bouquet, a Breton landscape and marine painter and pupil of Gudin, paints that moment of escape, a feat that also left the Vétéran trapped in the harbour, unable to leave for years.
The real ship Vétéran was ordered at Brest in 1794 as the Magnanime, renamed Quatorze Juillet and then Vétéran, and launched on 18 July 1803. She sailed under Jérôme Bonaparte in the Atlantic campaign of 1806, was trapped at Concarneau for years, later reached Lorient and Brest, and was broken up in 1842.
Sources Wikidata · Wikipedia · Wikipedia (FR)
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Survivors of the Spanish ship of the line Neptuno Named ship
An Episode of the Battle of Trafalgar (Episodio de la batalla de Trafalgar, also called Náufragos de Trafalgar), 1862
Artist Francisco Sans Cabot (1828 to 1881)
Where to see it Museo del Prado, Madrid
Medium Oil on canvas
Spain remembered Trafalgar through its survivors as well as its dead. This vast canvas, more than four metres wide, shows the men of the Spanish ship of the line Neptuno, wrecked after the battle near the castle of Santa Catalina at El Puerto de Santa María, taking refuge by the fortress. Sans Cabot painted it in 1862 and it became the work he was known for as a history painter; from 1873 until his death he was director of the Museo del Prado, which holds the picture. Here the ship is present through her loss.
The real ship Neptuno was an 80-gun Spanish ship of the line built at the royal dockyard of Ferrol and launched in 1795, name ship of her class. She fought at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 and was wrecked afterwards near the castle of Santa Catalina, El Puerto de Santa María.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia (ES)
Image: Francisco Sans Cabot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Pommern and Golitsyn's galley fleet Named ship
The Battle of Grengam, 27 July 1720 (Grengamskoe srazhenie), 1866
Artist Alexey Bogolyubov (1824 to 1896)
Where to see it State Russian Museum, St Petersburg
Medium Oil on canvas
Bogolyubov painted the last major sea battle of the Great Northern War for a navy that treasured its Petrine victories. At Grengam in the Åland skerries General Mikhail Golitsyn drew Vice Admiral Siöblad's Pommern and her consorts into waters where skerries, shoals and narrow channels took away the freedom of the deeper sailing ships; one ran aground, and the Russian galleys, crowded with soldiers, closed for boarding. Four Swedish vessels were taken, though Pommern herself fought her way out to open water. The picture turns on that contrast of sail and oar among the rocks.
The real ship Pommern was the Swedish ship of the line of Carl Georg Siöblad's squadron at Grengam on 27 July 1720 (Old Style). Russian forces captured four Swedish vessels, but Pommern disengaged and reached open water; the battle is generally regarded as a Russian victory, though its scale has been disputed by later historians.
Sources Wikipedia · Wikipedia (RU) · Wikimedia Commons
Image: Alexey Bogolyubov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Öland Named ship
The "Öland" Fighting with English Men-of-War in 1704 (Linjeskeppet Öland i strid med engelska örlogsskepp 1704), 1870
Artist Albert Berg (1832 to 1916)
Where to see it Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (NM 1114)
Medium Oil on canvas
Off Orford Ness on 7 August 1704 an English squadron of eight ships of the line and a frigate demanded that the Swedish convoy escort Öland salute. Captain Gustaf von Psilander, under orders from Charles XII never to salute foreign ships first, refused, and his lieutenant Herman Schmidt, sent across in the gig, answered the English captain with a question. Berg paints the four-hour fight that followed, Öland amid English ships in drifting smoke. Heavily damaged, she tied her flag in the middle as a signal of distress, and so never struck her colours.
“What obligation does the King of Sweden owe the Queen of England?”
The real ship Öland was a 56-gun Swedish ship of the line escorting a merchant convoy. Boarded after the Battle of Orford Ness in 1704, she and her crew were released at the demand of Charles XII, but she sank north of Denmark on the way home.
Sources Wikidata · Wikipedia · Wikipedia (SV)
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Perry's boat, between USS Lawrence and USS Niagara Named ship
Battle of Lake Erie, 1873
Artist William Henry Powell (1823 to 1879)
Where to see it United States Senate, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. (33.00008.000)
Medium Oil on canvas
The hero of this great staircase picture, more than eight metres wide, is not a ship but a small boat. With his flagship Lawrence badly damaged on 10 September 1813, Oliver Hazard Perry had himself rowed through enemy fire to the Niagara. Powell first painted the scene for the Ohio statehouse; its success led Congress in 1865 to ask for a larger version, finished in 1873. Perry's thirteen-year-old brother Alexander grasps his coat, the helmsman gestures for him to sit, and a dead sailor floats in the water nearby.
The real ship USS Lawrence and USS Niagara were brigs of Oliver Hazard Perry's squadron on Lake Erie. When Lawrence was disabled Perry transferred to Niagara by boat and went on to win the battle of 10 September 1813.
Sources senate.gov · Wikipedia · Wikimedia Commons
Image: William Henry Powell, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Elefanten and the Russian galley fleet Named ship
The Battle of Gangut, 27 July 1714 (Srazhenie pri Gangute), 1877
Artist Alexey Bogolyubov (1824 to 1896)
Medium Oil on canvas
Gangut was the first important victory of the Russian fleet, and it is still commemorated in Russia as a Day of Military Honour. In a morning calm the Russian galleys broke past the Swedish battle fleet, then pushed Rear Admiral Nils Ehrenskiöld's small detachment back until he formed a defensive line between two islands, his largest ship, the pram Elefanten, broadside on. He refused to surrender; after the attack of 27 July 1714 he was taken prisoner on the deck of his own flagship. Russians later embellished the story by calling the flat-bottomed pram a frigate.
The real ship Elefanten was an oared, flat-bottomed gun pram and the flagship of Nils Ehrenskiöld's detachment at Gangut (Hanko). She was captured on 27 July 1714 (Old Style) with the admiral on her deck.
Sources Wikipedia · Wikimedia Commons
Image: Alexey Bogolyubov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Algésiras Named ship
The Algésiras at the Battle of Trafalgar (De Algérisas in de zeeslag van Trafalgar), 1879
Artist Hendrik Frans Schaefels (1827 to 1904)
Where to see it Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), inv. 1127
Medium Oil on canvas
An Antwerp painter's view of Trafalgar, signed in 1879 and bought that year at the Antwerp Triennial Exhibition. Schaefels chose the Algésiras, flagship of Rear Admiral Charles Magon, a ship with an extraordinary story: boarded and captured by the British during the battle, she was recaptured by her own crew in the storm that followed and found shelter in Cádiz. On a canvas more than two metres wide, the painter gives the drama of the day to a ship of the losing side.
The real ship Algésiras was a 74-gun Téméraire-class ship of the line, ordered from the Lorient arsenal, built at its annex at Caudan and launched in 1804. After Trafalgar she sheltered at Cádiz, was captured by the Spanish when Spain switched sides in 1808, sank at her moorings in 1818, was refloated, and finally sank from neglect in 1829.
Image: Hendrik Frans Schaefels, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
San Juan Nepomuceno Named ship
The Death of Churruca at Trafalgar (Muerte de Churruca en Trafalgar), 1892
Artist Eugenio Álvarez Dumont (1864 to 1927)
Where to see it Museo del Prado, Madrid (P06301), on deposit at the Instituto Cabrera Pinto, La Laguna
Medium Oil on canvas
Cosme Damián Churruca, captain of the San Juan Nepomuceno, became Spain's hero of Trafalgar. Within sight of the enemy he had his colours nailed to the mast, so that they came down only with his death. Facing six British ships, his crew fought with precision and courage until a cannon ball took off his leg, and he died admired by his enemies. Álvarez Dumont won an honourable mention for an early sketch of the subject as a student in Rome. The ship herself became a memorial: towed to Gibraltar, she kept her captain's cabin closed under a plaque bearing his name in gold.
The real ship San Juan Nepomuceno, a 74-gun two-decker, was built at the Real Astillero de Guarnizo in Cantabria and served the Spanish Navy from 1766. Captured at Trafalgar after Churruca's death, she was taken to Gibraltar, where visitors to Churruca's cabin were asked to uncover their heads, and was sold for breaking up in 1816.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia (ES)
Image: Eugenio Álvarez Dumont, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Achille Named ship
Trafalgar: Episode of the Ship Achille, 22 October 1805 (Trafalgar, épisode du vaisseau l'Achille, 22 octobre 1805), 1897
Artist Charles Fouqueray (1869 to 1956)
Where to see it Musée Petiet, Limoux (897.003)
Medium Oil on canvas
Fouqueray, who became Peintre de la Marine in 1908, took for his subject one of the darkest moments of Trafalgar for France: the Achille, destroyed when her magazine exploded at the end of the battle. At least 190 of her crew were rescued, and the rescue of one woman from the ship had already inspired a painting in 1817. For a French artist of the 1890s the burning Achille could carry the meaning the Vengeur had carried a century before.
The real ship Achille was a 74-gun Téméraire-class ship of the line laid down at Rochefort in 1802 and launched on 17 November 1804. She served in the Trafalgar campaign, including the Battle of Cape Finisterre in July 1805, and was destroyed at Trafalgar when her magazine exploded.
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the Musée Petiet, Limoux, where the original is kept. Photo: Tylwyth Eldar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
Perry's boat from Lawrence to Niagara Named ship
Cyrus Tiffany in the Battle of Lake Erie, September 13, 1813, 1943
Artist Martyl (Martyl Schweig Langsdorf) (1917 to 2013)
Where to see it Recorder of Deeds Building, 515 D Street NW, Washington, D.C.
Medium Mural
Painted around 1943 for the Recorder of Deeds building in Washington, Martyl's mural places Cyrus Tiffany beside Oliver Hazard Perry in the famous boat crossing of Lake Erie. Tiffany, an elderly African-American fifer and sailor known as Old Tiffany, was Perry's personal servant, and he is said to have shielded Perry as they transferred from the damaged Lawrence to the Niagara. His part is rarely mentioned in accounts of the battle. The artist, who later drew the Doomsday Clock for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, gave the small boat a different hero.
The real ship On 10 September 1813 Perry left his damaged flagship USS Lawrence in a boat and transferred to USS Niagara, from which he won the Battle of Lake Erie. Tiffany continued to serve with Perry; some records show him dying aboard USS Java in 1818.
Sources Wikipedia · Wikimedia Commons · Library of Congress
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Painting
USS Enterprise and HMS Boxer Named ship
USS Enterprise versus HMS Boxer, 5 September 1813, undated
Artist Dwight Shepler (1905 to 1974)
Where to see it Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C. (NH 47013-KN)
Medium Painting
Off Pemaquid Point, Maine, on 5 September 1813, two small brigs fought one of the sharpest actions of the War of 1812. USS Enterprise under Lieutenant William Burrows met HMS Boxer under Commander Samuel Blyth, who had his colours nailed to the mast. Within half pistol shot Blyth was killed in the first exchanges and Burrows fell mortally wounded; after thirty minutes Boxer was a wreck with three feet of water in her hold. The dying Burrows declined Blyth's sword, directing that it be sent to the dead captain's family. Shepler, a Second World War combat artist, painted the duel.
“I am satisfied, I die contented”
The real ship Enterprise, built as a schooner in Maryland in 1799 and rebuilt as a brig before the war, carried fourteen 18-pounder carronades and two long 9-pounders with 102 men; HMS Boxer had twelve 18-pounder carronades and two long 6-pounders with 66 men. Boxer was taken into Portland, auctioned for $9,775 and served for some years as a merchantman; Enterprise was wrecked in the West Indies in 1823.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Battles 1700 to 1815 · Print
Loire, HMS Anson and HMS Kangaroo Named ship
The Fifth Fight of the Loire off the Coast of Ireland, 27 Vendémiaire Year 7 (Cinquième Combat soutenu par la Loire sur la Côte d'Irlande le 27 Vendémiaire, An 7), undated
Artist Louis-Philippe Crépin (1772 to 1851), engraved by Jean Lambert
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (PAG8995)
Medium Print (engraving and etching)
The French expedition to Ireland in 1798 was broken at Tory Island, but the frigate Loire did not give up. Carrying 664 men, including artillery for the troops ashore, she escaped into Black Cod Bay, was hunted down by a British frigate squadron, fought the Mermaid and the brig Kangaroo to a standstill on 17 October, and the next day fought again against the Anson and Kangaroo until her ammunition was gone and she had to strike. The print's title counts this as the fifth fight the Loire sustained off the Irish coast: a defeat recorded as an epic.
The real ship Loire, a 38-gun frigate, was captured on 18 October 1798 with 48 of her men killed and 75 wounded, and taken into British service as HMS Loire; in 1803 her boats captured the French brig Venteux off the Île de Batz.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
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