Plate 1of 8 ( with two additional plates):
The most striking element in this composition is the large chest in the middle of the plainly furnished room. It is for the belongings and recently purchased items of Master William Blockhead who is pointing the small sword into his older sister’s side. The inscription on the box reveals that the young adventurer is about to join the Royal Navy ship 'Hellfire' on the West India station, although ‘hellfire’ equally suggests the kind of experiences that the small, well-dressed boy in the red jacket is about to encounter. On the wall are two battle scenes, one either side of a portrait that could be a late father, in whose footsteps the young boy follows. Meanwhile, his mother is very unhappy at the prospect of her son going off to sea, although once the boy has gone she will still have the tiny girl at her knee to care for. The man standing by a window to her left is perusing a paper headed ‘List of Necessaries for Fitting out a Midshipman’, while on the covered table in front of him are heaps of bills spiked on three files, indicating the expense of the son’s entrance into the navy. Could it be that the mother, having lost her first husband, has married this man to save herself from financial ruin? The chest is fit to burst and still there is more to accommodate. Among the provisions of portable soup and two bottles of cherry brandy are books, one of which carries the name Hamilton Moore, the author of a book titled Naval Sketches. Master Blockhead, it seems, is more than ready to join the ranks of the Navy.
Inscribed beneath the image, lines from an anonymous poem: ‘He hails in life’s advancing day / amusive hopes and prospects gay / nor in the wide horizon round / Can e’er one little speck be found to cloud the scene – Anon’

Detailed description/inventory of all the elements in the room has been made on the BM catalogue. Image related to: BM Reg number 1891, 1117.24 'The Life of a Midshipman' by Captain Frederick Marryat. (1820)

Other versions of this image in the collection are: PAD4721, PAD4813, PAI5979, PAI6566, PAJ1829.