A painting showing an important naval engagement during the French Revolutionary War, 1793-1802. On 19 May 1798, Napoleon sailed from Toulon on his hazardous adventure to Egypt, capturing Malta en route. On realizing this, Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson initially looked for the French at Alexandria, but when he didn’t find them he sailed back to Syracuse in Sicily to reposition before returning to Alexandria. There, on 1 August, he received a signal that the French fleet had been sighted anchored in Aboukir Bay, 15 miles east of Alexandria. Thence Nelson headed, appearing off Aboukir Island at 17.30. Despite the failing daylight, his ships immediately attacked the head of the unprepared French fleet at anchor, commanded by Admiral Brueys. Three ships rounded the bows of the leading French ships, one passed between the first and second ship and another between the sixth and seventh.

Whitcombe’s painting shows the beginning of the action at about 19.00, viewed from the north. On the extreme right the French battery on the Island of Aboukir fires on the nearest British ships. To the left of this is the anchored French line with the ‘Guerrier’ at the head with the British ‘Zealous’ engaging her on her right. Astern of the ‘Guerrier’, the ‘Conquérant’ is engaged with the British ‘Goliath’. The next French ship in the line is the ‘Spartiate’, almost obscured by Nelson’s flagship the ‘Vanguard’, identifiable by the blue flag at the mizzen and the three Union jacks. Beyond is the British ‘Theseus’. The British ‘Minotaur’ masks the French ‘Aquilon’ while to the left of her is the French ‘Peuple Souverain’ engaging the British ‘Orion’ being raked by the ‘Leander’. Next left, the British ‘Defence’ and Swiftsure’ engage the French flagship ‘Franklin’. Beyond and to the left the British ‘Bellerophon’ engages the ‘Orient’. In the extreme left background the British ‘Majestic’ engages the ‘Tonnant’ and in the extreme left foreground the British ‘Culloden’ is aground. The painting is signed and dated ‘T Whitcombe 1798’ and was presented by the Earl of Yarborough to the Greenwich Hospital Collection in 1855.