An incident during the Seven Years War, 1756-63, between France and Britain. 1759 was a year of victories for Britain and on 26 June Admiral Sir Charles Saunders' powerful fleet, which had conveyed Major-General James Wolfe's land forces to Canada, anchored off the Ile d'Orleans on the St Lawrence River, below Quebec. A month after the fire-ship attack depicted in BHC0392, the French made a second bid to dislodge Saunders' fleet, which is the subject of this painting. About 100 fire-rafts were sent down but these fared no better than the earlier fire-ships and were towed safely aside by the boats of the fleet. On 13 September Wolfe's infantry were landed from boats below the Heights of Abraham and scaled them during the night to reach the plateau outside the city. There they defeated the French army of the Marquis de Montcalm in a set-piece battle of which both Wolfe and Montcalm were the leading casualties. On 18 September the city capitulated, marking the beginning of the end for the French colonies in North America. Within the year mainland Canada was completely in British hands.

In this view, which is the reverse of BHC0391, the fleet is seen from the north across the Ile d'Orleans, part of which forms the foreground of the right half of the painting. Beyond it are the boats of the fleet and the fire-rafts, the smoke of the latter blowing to the left, with Quebec in the extreme right background. The left foreground of the picture is taken up with the anchored British fleet in which Saunders' flagship, 'Stirling Castle', is in starboard-quarter view in the foreground just left of centre.

Scott belonged to the first generation of British marine painters, who worked in the tradition of the van de Veldes and the other Dutch artists who came to practice in London from the 1670s. His reputation chiefly rests on his topographical views of London but he was a very good marine painter, who accepted commissions like this and whose artistic and social skills eclipsed - at least in business terms- those of his slightly earlier contemporary Peter Monamy. He was notably averse to travelling by sea himself but produced many small drawings and watercolours to be incorporated later as details into his oils, such as men rowing and unloading boats, and often drew his ships from models.