(Recto) 'Britannia' hove to in a calm to receive a boat, probably near Cape Carthage, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Dundas, 27 April 1852; (Verso) HMS 'Vengeance' in Port Mahon, 26 May 1852

An image showing ''Britannia' hove to in a calm to receive a boat, probably near Cape Carthage, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Dundas'

An image showing 'HMS 'Vengeance' in Port Mahon'

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(Recto) 'Britannia' hove to in a calm to receive a boat, probably near Cape Carthage, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Dundas, 27 April 1852; (Verso) HMS 'Vengeance' in Port Mahon, 26 May 1852

No. 19 of 36 (PAI0849 - PAI0884).

(Recto) Inscribed top left, 'Britannia / at sea April 27th 52 / Flag of Admiral Dundas'. The ship is shown in port broadside view, her sails hove to but slack in calm but threatening grey conditions, on an oily swell. Given the date it is likely to be near Cape Carthage (see PAI0867) with other units of the fleet. Unfinished elements are a ship's launch being rowed towards her, lower right, and another ship just outlined in pencil in bow view in the right distance. 'Britannia' was a 120-gun 1st rate, built at Plymouth Dockyard in 1820. At the time shown she was the flagship of the Mediterranean fleet under Rear-Admiral James Dundas (1785-1862), though he was promoted to vice-admiral in December 1852. It was his first sea-going fleet command which he executed with great competence into and through the main part of the Crimean War until 1855, despite being deliberately undermined both by political opponents and the personal ambitions of his second-in-command, Rear-Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons (to whom Mends's elder brother William was then flag captain). Dundas's red command flag as a rear-admiral flies here at the ship's mizzen.

(Verso) A pencil and blue-wash study inscribed top left, 'Port Mahon- / HMS Vengeance- / May 26th 52 / Capt Lord Edward Russell'. It shows a near starboard-broadside view, but slighly from the bow, of Russell's ship (an 84-gun two-decker) at anchor drying sails in Port Mahon harbour, with a little land to the right and the hills rising up behind, though the exact spot is not clear.

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Object Details

ID:	PAI0867
Type:	Drawing
Display location:	Not on display
Creator:	Mends, George Pechell; Mends, George Pechell
Places:	Mahon
Vessels:	Vengeance (1824); Britannia (1820)
Date made:	27 April 1852; Apr-May 1852
Credit:	National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements:	Sheet: 255 x 372 mm
Parts:	Captain Captain George Pechell Mends' 'Trafalgar' sketchbook: (inside front cover) 'Hints on Drawing' with a small watercolour landscape sketch (Sketchbook) (Recto) Two pencil sketches, of a Thames barge and of the 'St Lawrence or old Shannon' at Sheerness, with two colour drawings of country scenes, and mixing notes on watercolours; (verso) HMS 'Trafalgar' at Sheerness, 16 October 1850, and and a tree study (Drawing) (PAI0850) (Recto) View of two large houses surrounded by countryside, with notes on watercolours; (verso) Two landscape watercolours. (Drawing) (PAI0851) (Recto) Scene at Teignmouth, with a figure looking out to sea leaning up against a beacon; (Verso) a rugged landscape with a waterfall and pencil sketches of a figure sitting by boulders and a three-decker flagship (Drawing) (PAI0852) (Recto) HMS 'Monarch' at Sheerness, December 1850; (Verso) studies of the 'Formidable' and 'Apollo' at Sheerness, and a sunset landscape (Drawing) (PAI0853) (Recto) HMS 'Trafalgar' off Sheerness, from the 'Shannon', 28 December 1850; (Verso) studies including Thames barges, a lady and gentleman walking, and trees (Drawing) (PAI0854) (Recto) Sheerness Dockyard from stern port of the 'Trafalgar', 25 January 1851; (Verso) 'Monarch' at Sheerness from the 'Trafalgar' 29 January 1851 (Drawing) (PAI0855) (Recto) View of the Crystal Palace as built in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibtion, July 1851; (Verso) landscape, ship and tree studies (Drawing) (PAI0856) (Recto) Gibraltar, with HMS 'Trafalgar' at anchor, a Spanish smuggling boat and the steamer 'Oberon', 26 August 1851; (Verso) 'Mon Juc' [Montjuïc] Barcelona, September 1851 (Drawing) (PAI0857) (Recto) HMS 'Trafalgar' at anchor off the Mole head at Barcelona, with the castle of Montjuïc (continuation drawing from verso of PAI0857); (Verso) four shipping studies, including of a frigate action (Drawing) (PAI0858) (Recto) Sketch of two young women, one sitting and reading the other stretching and yawning (drawn by Lord Bury) with a drawing of a tree alongside; (Verso) HMS 'Queen' off the 'Island of Brada, Ivisa' [Ibiza?] 26 October 1851 (Drawing) (PAI0859) (Recto) HMS 'Ganges' off Fort Trinidad, Rosas Bay, south-eastern Spain, 9 October 1851; (Verso) Lord Nelson's House, Port Mahon, 12 November 1851 (Drawing) (PAI0860) (Recto) Sketch of Port Mahon, 12 November 1851; (Verso) study of HMS 'Queen' at Malta, 3 March 1852 (Drawing) (PAI0861) (Recto) Malta 1852, from the stern port of Trafalgar; (Verso) Moses and the Golden Calf (copy of a painting?) (Drawing) (PAI0862) (Recto) HMS 'Trafalgar' losing her rudder-head in a north-easterly gale off Malta, 1 February 1852; (Verso) a coastal profile of Majorca, with a vase of flowers and a study of leaves, 3 June 1852 (Drawing) (PAI0863) (Recto) HMS 'Trafalgar' sailing into Malta Harbour with loss of her rudder head after a gale, 9 February 1852: (Verso) 'Trafalgar' under the Upper Barracca, Malta, 27 March 1852 (Drawing) (PAI0864) (Recto) Inside the Harbour at Malta, 17 April 1852; (Verso) HMS 'Trafalgar' in Grand Harbour, Malta, 11 March 1852 (Drawing) (PAI0865) (Recto) HMS 'Bellerophon' off Cape Carthage, 26 April 1852; (Verso) Fort St Elmo and the entrance to the Grand Harbour, Malta, 20 March 1852 (Drawing) (PAI0866) (Recto) 'Britannia' hove to in a calm to receive a boat, probably near Cape Carthage, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Dundas, 27 April 1852; (Verso) HMS 'Vengeance' in Port Mahon, 26 May 1852 (Drawing) (PAI0867) (Recto) HMS 'Vengeance' at anchor in Port Mahon, 26 May 1852; (Verso) The 'Charlemagne' with 'Trafalgar' leaving Port Mahon under tow by 'Firebrand', 1 June 1852 (Drawing) (PAI0868) (Recto) The Mediterranean fleet under Rear-Admiral Dundas off south-east Spain, Roldan's Gap in sight to the north-west, 7 June 1852; (Verso) sail exercise in Malta harbour (Drawing) (PAI0869) (Recto) Trial of Sailing; 'Phaeton' the winner passing 'Trafalgar' (the turning point), off Malaga, 17 July 1852; (Verso) near collision between 'Dauntless' and 'Trafalgar' (Drawing) (PAI0870) (Recto) View at Gibraltar, towards Algeciras; with a pencil sketch of a rowing boat with a passenger in a tall hat; (Verso) Cabo de Gata (Drawing) (PAI0871) (Recto) Trial of sailing off Cape de Galta [Cabo de Gata], 30 July 1852, 'Trafalgar' and 'Terrible' in the foreground; (Verso) the island of Zembra, near Cape Bon, Tunisia, 2 September 1852 (Drawing) (PAI0872) (Recto) Sketch of ships 'steaming and towing' in the strait between between Andro (Andros) and Euboea in the Aegean, September 1852; (Verso) profile views of Cape Matapan, 13 September, and Cape Grosso, 13 October 1852, Greece (Drawing) (PAI0873) (Recto) Unfinished watercolour of the 'Britannia' anchored in 'Mulah Bay' (Vourla/ Urla Bay), Turkey, west of Smyrna (Izmir); (Verso) Mulah Bay (continued on PAI0875 recto) (Drawing) (PAI0874) (Recto) The southern part of Mulah Bay (Vourla/ Urla Bay), near Smyrna (Izmir), Turkey (continued from PAI0874); (Verso) Port Mandri, Greece, 2 October 1852 (Drawing) (PAI0875) (Recto) Two views of Cape Colonna [Sounion] and the Temple of Poseidon, October 1852; (Verso) a Greek brig (Drawing) (PAI0876) (Recto) The Plain of Athens, October 1852 (continuation to left on verso of PAI0876); (verso) the Bay of Salamis from the Piraeus road (Drawing) (PAI0877) (Recto) The citadel of Corfu from the Governor's country house; (Verso, undated) a ship, probably the 'Trafalgar', in a storm off Majorca (Drawing) (PAI0878) (Recto) Gibraltar from the Queen of Spain's Chair, 22 January 1853; (verso, undated) St Angelo and Dockyard Creek, Malta (Drawing) (PAI0879) (Recto) The 'Napoléon', French 100-gun screw ship, and the 'Jupiter', French 80, in Besika Bay, July 1853; (verso) a coastal magazine(?) on a headland, 21 May 1853 (Drawing) (PAI0880) (Recto) The 'Ville de Paris', French flag ship, Besika Bay, 22 July 1853: (verso) The French fleet joining the English in Besika Bay, 14 June 1853 (Drawing) (PAI0881) (Recto) The English fleet off the entrance to the Dardanelles; (verso) the French and English fleets in Besika Bay, October 1853 (Drawing) (PAI0882) (Recto) The 'Sans Pareil' in Besika Bay, 3 October 1853 and the French steamer 'Mogador' towing the French 'Valmy' into the Dardanelles, 29 October 1853; (Verso) broadside studies of the French 'Jupiter', 'Jena' and 'Ville de Paris' drying sails (Drawing) (PAI0883) Coastal scene in poor weather, with two women seated on a promenade bench under a lamppost, one with an umbrella, looking out to sea (Drawing) (PAI0884)