This dramatic etching is from an oil painting by Hastings (1778-1854) entitled 'Painted from a Sketch Taken During a Storm off the Cape of Good Hope' and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1821. The 'Prince of Wales', Captain John Price, had sailed on her first voyage to India in May 1803, starting the homeward voyage from Madras in April 1804 and reaching St Helena in June. Having sailed from there in convoy under escort of HM ship 'Courageux', she was last seen in distress in heavy weather on 8 June before vanishing with all on board.
The artist was born Thomas Barnett, son of a lawyer, but both he and his brother Edward (also a lawyer) changed it to that of their maternal great-grandmother in 1812, following the conviction of their father for perjury in 1807 and accusations of further malpractice in 1810. Thomas's initial career was in the army, in which he was trained as a surveyor, saw service in India and rose to a captaincy by purchase before resigning in 1811. From 1819 to 1853 (when he was 75) he was in the Customs service, mainly in the high rank of Collector in various places in England and Ireland. He was also a dedicated and exhibiting amateur artist and etcher, with the family resources and leisure to follow these interests, primarily as a landscape artist, as well as being a promoter of the sport of archery. His most important publication was 'Etchings from the Works of Richard Wilson with some Memoirs of his Life...' (1825). For its time this is a remarkably realistic rendering of a major storm at sea, also etched with great skill. As his recent brief biographer Marianne A. Yule has commented; 'Sharp contrasts between dark and light accentuate the depth and height of the waves of the stormy sea, as they are about to engulf the dwarfed ship; numerous intermediate shades suggest overlapping layers in the water and clouds' (see p.60 in her 'Captain Thomas Hastings (1778-1854): his full identity revealed' in 'The British Art Journal', vol xvi, no. 2, autumn 2015, pp.56-69). PAH5794 is another copy.