Technique includes etching. The cutting-out raid was a method of attack usually undertaken while the enemy ship was at anchor in the dead of night. The attackers, leaping from their small boats would storm and with luck take the upper deck. This plan relied on surprise and the disadvantages of being heavily outnumbered meant it was not a popular means of assault.

The French ‘Bienfaisant’ was the only major ship to be captured as a result of a cutting out raid in July 1758. This print represents the recapture of the British ‘Hermione’ in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, by boats of the ‘Surprise’, two years after her crew had mutinied against the sadistic Captain Pigot, killed him and most of his officers, and handed the ship over to the Spaniards.