Watercolour of HMS Wellesley (1815), a three-masted, 74-gun ship of the line sailing along a rocky coastline before a good wind. Hills or mountains partially obscured by cloud are shown in the far distance. Wellesley is carrying the red ensign and flies a single red flag from the top of the mizzen mast indicating readiness for action.

HMS Wellesley was built by the East India Company for the Royal Navy at the Bombay dockyard and launched on the 24th of Februaury, 1815. Wellesley served in the First Opium War and the drawing may show her running into Amoy Harbour on 25 August 1841 under the flag of Rear Admiral, Sir William Parker. On the following day Wellesley took part in the destruction of batteries and defences surrounding the town of Amoy.

In 1854 Wellesley served at Chatham both as a harbour flag ship and as a receiving ship. In 1858 she was refitted as a reformatory schoool for the London Ship Society and was later used as an industrial training ship on the River Tyne. Sunk only in 1940 during a German air raid, Wellesley was finally raised in 1948 and beached at Tilbury.