Hodges's paintings of the Pacific celebrate British exploration. He was appointed by the Admiralty to record the places discovered on Cook's second voyage, undertaken in the 'Resolution' and 'Adventure', 1772-75. This was primarily in the form of drawings, many later converted to engravings in the official account of the voyage. He also did some oil paintings on the voyage but most, especially the larger ones, were painted in London on his return. The National Maritime Museum holds 26 oils relating to the voyage of which 24 were either painted for or acquired by the Admiralty.

Cook's main purpose on this expedition was to locate, if possible, the much talked-of but unknown Southern Continent and further expand knowledge of the central Pacific islands, in which Hodges' records of coastal profiles were in part important for navigational reasons.

Probably developed from some lost studies, though there is a related drawing among the group of very big ones by Hodges in the British Library) this huge painting is Hodges' largest from the voyage and illustrates 'one of the most magnificent sights in the South Seas'. Part of the Tahitian fleet prepare for a punitive expedition against the neighbouring island of Moorea. The reasons for this engagement, part of a long-lasting dispute based upon tribal ambitions, are obscure. Cook took great interest in these war preparations and described them in detail. He estimated that the preparations for the expedition involved 4000 men raised from the four districts of Tahiti and noted that the chief of each part was responsible for fitting out the fleet belonging to that district. It was one of the Tahitian chieftains, Te-ari'i-fa, who first suggested that Hodges might make some drawings of a review of the fleet, which occurred on 30 April 1774 during Cook's second visit to Tahiti during the overall voyage.

Hodges here depicts three war canoes against a picturesque landscape with a genre scene in the left foreground. The canoes, manned for battle, dominate the painting with fighting stages visible in the centre of the hulls and figures placed in groups of three. Although he witnessed the canoe preparations at Tahiti, Hodges in fact locates them here against a background view of the island of Huahine, with its two divided peaks. On the left the large deciduous tree, incongruous in a tropical setting against the palm trees, implies a European backdrop for the family group who have been positioned using classical references. Considerable attention has been paid to ethnographic detailing of the canoes, warriors and carving, taken directly from a drawing now in the British Museum. Only a few figures have been depicted on each canoe, although eye-witness accounts refer to considerable crowding, and various other departures have been made for pictorial effect (for example, absence of rowers in the foreground canoe and the fighting platforms being placed centrally, rather than further towards in the bows, to the left). A warrior wearing a large head-dress, in the foreground canoe, provides a central and dominant focus in the painting.

This vast composition was intended to romanticize the exotic war canoes, the landscape and the feelings of the Tahitians left on shore. It is a composite, rather than a record of a specific event, evoking Hodges's response to the place and the people. Apart from the immediate background apparently being Huahine, the distant island right may be based on the peak of Bora-Bora, with the sails of Cook's 'Resolution' shown very small on the horizon in front, no more than 2 cm high in a painting which is vertically over 1.8 m. Christian symbolism and classical signifiers have been conflated with those of the Tahitians and invite comparisons.The atmosphere reflects the momentary darkness of a tropical squall. The composite organization of the picture creates spatial difficulties, especially along the shoreline in the foreground, and when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1777 it was criticised for its unfinished appearance.