Ship portrait. The East Indiaman Duke of Portland first entered service with the Honourable East India Company in 1769 under the ownership of one Pinson Bonham. The 499 ton vessel made four voyages for the Company, principally to Bombay and China. After 1774 it was rebuilt as a 723 ton vessel. The painting is dated to 1780 and therefore probably depicts the vessel immediately prior to its final voyage to China. Leaving Portsmouth on 12 February 1780 under the command of Captain John Sutton, the ship arrived back at the Downs for the last time on 24 October 1782. The third (?) voyage of the vessel is described in William Hickey's Memoirs, (first published in 1913).