This painting represents the end of Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis and Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Gray's amphibious assault on Martinique, which sailed from Barbados on 2 February 1794 with 20 ships and 6000 men. By 16 March only Fort Royal and Fort Bourbon still held out. The key to Fort Royal was Fort Louis and on the 20th Jervis ordered the 'Asia', 64 guns, and the sloop 'Zebra', 16 guns, to attack it. 'Asia' proved too large to come close inshore but Commander Robert Faulknor of the 'Zebra' ran his ship under the walls, where his men went over the side and rushed the fort. With Fort Louis taken the boats of the fleet were sent in to capture Fort Royal and two days later the French governor, General Rochambeau, surrendered Fort Bourbon. In the left foreground is a merchant brig at anchor with only her foremast and bowsprit stepped and rigged: the stump of the mainmast is also visible. On shore at right under a palm tree two black boys wave at the action behind, their presence signalling a West Indian location. Off shore to the right lies the French frigate 'Bienvenue', 32 guns, in starboard-bow view, flying the early French Revolutionary naval ensign of a tricoleur in the upper quadrant of a white field (a pattern replaced by the full tricoleur after 1794). Some smaller merchant craft lie inshore, one half sunk, with Fort Bourbon behind in the far background. The British frigate in the centre, in starboard-quarter view is larger than, but intended to represent, the sloop 'Zebra' - as more correctly shown in the print by Samuel Alken after the Revd Cooper Willyams (PAG8922) on which this painting is based. On the far side of the forts, above gunsmoke, can be seen the masts of another vessel. In the left background are the boats of the 'Rose' and the 'Nugent' pulling in towards land with troops on board, with the 'Asia' seen in the far distance. Alken's source print was one of a pair of the event after Willyams (for the other see PAG8924) and has a group of soldiers in the foreground: here they have been largely omitted and the shipping scaled up. The prints were published in 1796 and the painting is signed 'T. Luny', but not dated. [PvdM 5/17, based on Teddy Archibald's typescript notes]