This drawing is possibly a design for a painting commissioned by Captain MacBride, as in 1781 Serres had exhibited at the Royal Academy a picture depicting the capture of a Spanish ship by MacBride the previous year. The drawing is inscribed with the subject in Serres' hand 'Capt. Macbride in the 'Artois' taking two Dutch privateers'. McBride's account of the capture of the 'Hercules' and 'Mars', two Amsterdam privateers, 'occasioned much mirth at the time on account of the singular way in which it was worded'.