A painting showing Rear Admiral Graves’s flagship ‘Ramillies’ on 16 September 1782. Under instruction from Admiral Rodney, she was on her way home to England from the North American Station. She was conducting English ships in need of repair, French prizes and a merchant convoy. The ships ran into a gale on the Newfoundland Bank and ‘Ramillies’ is the ship on the left with a large number of sailors shown aloft dealing with the sails.

This painting captures the moment when the storm is coming on, and strong rays of light against dark clouds can be seen on the left. The sea is darkening and in anticipation of the storm the Admiral makes the signal to the number of ships in the convoy and shown in the painting, to bring to for the night.

This painting is the first of a set of five showing the incident, including, ‘On her beam ends’, ‘Bearing away’, ‘Abandoned’, ‘Blowing up the wreck’ (BHC2215). There was also a set of aquatints from the paintings. The misfortunes and sufferings of this fleet would loom large even in a history of shipwrecks. The painting is signed ‘R. Dodd 1783’.