The wreck of the 'Magnificent', 74 guns, took place early in the Napoleonic War, 1803-15. Commanded by Captain W. H. Jervis (formerly Ricketts), the ship was one of twenty sail of the line blockading the French fleet in Brest, Brittany, and foundered after striking uncharted rocks near the Pierre Noir (Black Rocks).

While reconnoitring the enemy coast during the blockade, Jervis discovered several French ships in the bay of Conquet. Determined to attack and capture them he made the attempt on the night of 24 March 1804 but a strong current and threatening weather forced him to abandon the raid. On the following day he was trying to get round the outermost of the Black Rocks when the ship hit an uncharted spur. The tide rapidly rose and she was wrecked but boats of the squadron immediately came to the rescue and all the crew, up to 600 men, were saved. The sick and invalids were sent away in the first boats and then the ship's company was rescued in divisions, with the officers and Marines remaining to the end. Jervis stayed with his ship to the last and in the subsequent investigatory court-martial all concerned were acquitted of blame.

In Schetky's rendering the ship lies on its side with waves crashing over it and the ensign at the stern turned upside-down, a traditional distress signal. Figures are shown climbing down ropes into the boats waiting below. Several figures stand at an angle and hold on to the guardrail to steady themselves. In the foreground to the right a number of small ship's boats are rowing towards the stricken vessel and in the distance to the left two other ships of the squadron lie at anchor, tossed by the waves. There is an outcrop of rock on the left and the cliffs on the far left rise up out of the low clouds.

Schetky was a Scottish painter who studied drawing with Alexander Nasmyth and embarked on a Continental tour in 1801. Initially drawing master at the Royal Military College, Great Marlow, he was Professor of Drawing at the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth, from 1811 until it closed in 1836. He then fulfilled the same role at the East India College, Addiscombe, until his retirement in 1855 although he remained active as a marime painter to his death at the age of 95. His work was informed by close personal knowledge of the sea and his subjects ranged from ship portraits and royal embarkations to reconstructions of earlier sea battles of the time of Nelson. In 1820 he was made Marine Painter in Ordinary to George IV and was granted the same title by Queen Victoria in 1844. He frequently travelled on board the royal yacht and assisted the Queen with her own sketches. While at Portsmouth, he also supplied Turner with studies of the 'Victory', for his 1822-24 painting of the Battle of Trafalgar (BHC0565). This painting, done while he was still at Addiscombe, is signed and dated ' J C Schetky 1839'.