original art: drawing. As a nine-year-old midshipman John Crispo (1773-1841) survived the sinking of the 'Royal George' at Spithead in 1782. While in command of the hired armed cutter 'Telemachus', 18 guns, (initially as a lieutenant) he captured two privateers in the Channel in 1796. He subsequently commanded the 'Resource', troopship. In 1808 he took the 'Little Belt', 18 guns, to the West Indies, accompanied by his son John William (d. 1857) as a midshipman. He was promoted to post-captain in 1810. This drawing was bequeathed to the Museum in 1968 by Isobel Roe, one of his descendants, together with other family miniature portraits: Captain and Mrs Robert Bloye (MNT0068 and MNT0069); Mrs Bloye's nephew, Lieutenant Henry Laird Cox (MNT0073) and his wife Elizabeth (nee Crispo: MNT0074), the present sitter's grandaughter and John William's daughter. The Museum also has an oil portrait of John Crispo (as a Commander in 1797) from another source: see BHC2637. [PvdM 6/12]