Built at Rochefort in 1800 as the 'Duguay-Trouin', this French 74-gun ship fought at Trafalgar in 1805 and with two others that escaped capture or loss there was taken three weeks later by Admiral Sir Richard Strachan in the Bay of Biscay off Cape Ortegal. It was taken into the Royal Navy as the 'Implacable', remaining in active service until 1844 and becoming a training ship thereafter at Portsmouth in 1855, eventually for boys. After some difficulties raising the necessary funds, the restoration of 'Implacable' in Devonport began in 1925/6 but on a continuing maintenance basis, leaving the ship afloat and in use. Moves to preserve it alongside the 'Victory' at Portsmouth as - by then - the last French ship from Trafalgar, and the last '74', were frustrated by the Second World War. Its condition after the war had deteriorated beyond retrieval in economic circumstances of the time and, after the French also declined its return for the same reasons, it was ceremonially towed out into the Channel in 1947 flying French and British colours and scuttled with explosives. The upper hull failed to sink but soon broke up, parts being washed up on the French coast. The figurehead and carved work of the stern galleries had previously been removed and were sent to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich at the expense of Sir James Caird (who had supported their previous restoration). While the figurehead was restored and displayed (initially outside) by about 1980 it was 50 years before the Neptune Court project of 1996-99 allowed the reconstructed stern to be displayed under cover on its south wall.

Robert Borlase Smart (1881-1947) was a founding member of the St Ives school of art. This painting is probably the one which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1926 (no. 405) under the title 'Reconstructing the old "Implacable" ', unless a study for or replica of that. In 1931 he presented it to the Society of Nautical Research, which was playing a key part in attempts to save the ship and in the foundation of the NMM at that time. The Society immediately transferred it to the collection being amassed for the Museum (only formally established in 1934). [PvdM 10/18]