(Updated, Septenber 2021) An incident from the beginning of the French Revolutionary War, 1793-1801. The British ship ‘Venus’ commanded by Captain Jonathan Faulkner, sighted a strange sail at 3 a.m. when 120 miles south-west of Cape Finisterre. About 7 a.m. the ship put out blue colours and the ‘Venus’ answered by signalling a private code to which the other ship - the French frigate 'Semillante' - made no reply. The first shots were fired about 7.30 and then a close action from 8 to about 10 a.m. began. By this time the ‘Semillante’ was almost silenced, her captain and first lieutenant were killed and she had five feet of water in her hold. The ‘Venus’ was trying to close her to take possession when she bore away towards another ship that had appeared and which proved to be another French frigate. The sails, rigging and spars of the 'Venus' had taken the brunt of the enemy fire and were extremely cut up, making a further engagement inadvisable. Indeed, she was lucky to escape an encounter with a fresh opponent.

In the right centre foreground, both frigates are shown in starboard quarter view in the first action, with the ‘Semillante’ on the right. Most of her port lids have fallen shut, her main topgallant mast seems about to fall, and her colours are being struck. The ‘Venus’ is shown still firing although she is shot through and there are gaping holes in her main topsail. A seaman on the gunwale of the quarter-deck can be seen putting out a small fire and her red ensign is falling owing to the gaff of the mizzen 'driver' sail being shot through, tearing the sail vertically as the peak end comes down. It is worth noting that the French ensign is the early Revolutionary form, comprising the plain white of the former Bourbon colours with the new French tricoleur in the upper quadrant. This only lasted into the later part of 1794 when it was replaced by the full French tricoleur still used today. In the left background of the painting is the other French frigate approaching, highlighting the precarious situation about to develop for the ‘Venus’. The painting is signed ‘T Elliott Pinxt’.