A head-and-shoulders portrait facing to the right and looking towards the viewer. Set in a painted oval, the sitter wears captain's full dress of over three years seniority, 1774 - 87. In 1773 Phipps led an Arctic expedition towards Spitsbergen in an unsuccessful attempt to find a north-eastern passage to India. In this he sailed in the bomb-ketch 'Racehorse' in company with the 'Carcass' (also a 'bomb' under Captain Skeffington Lutwidge). Nelson, then a midshipman, was among the crew of the latter.

At the Battle of Ushant in 1778 he commanded the 'Courageux', 74 guns, and played a distinguished part in action with the 'Ville de Paris', 110 guns. In the subsequent courts-martial sparked by the dispute between Admiral Keppel and his second-in-command, Hugh Palliser, he sided with Palliser. He remained in the 'Courageux' until the end of the war in 1783, after which he stayed ashore.

He had been MP for Lincoln from 1768 and in 1777, when he was also appointed to the Admiralty Board, he became MP for Huntingdon and later Paymaster-General to the Forces. His library on nautical subjects was described as the 'most perfect in England'.