Inscribed: "To Capt Peere Wiliams [sic] his Officers and Seamen This Plate representing their Engageing [sic] & Taking the French Frigate La Nymphe on the 10th of August 1780 is most respectfully Inscribed by their humble Servant Robt Dodd. This Gallant Action was fought off Ushant, with equal Bravery on both sides for one hour, when the Flora's Wheel being shot away, She fell on board La Nymphe, the French then quitted their great guns & attempted to Board the Flora, but unable to make an impression on the determined Courage of the English Seamen, were repulsed & drove Back to their own Ship; the English following them Sword in hand, Cut down their Colours and carried La Nymphe by Storm. From an Original Picture in the Possession of Andrew Lindegreen [sic] Esqr"; with either side of this the names and guns of the ships involved, and in the bottom-right corner, "NB. The Ships at a distance represents the First of the Engagement"; the whole arranged around a shield bearing Peere Williams's arms (a wolf issuing from a cave) supported by three putti carrying a Union Flag and laurel wreath.

Dodd's original composition particularises each element of the action as narrated in Williams's dispatch to the Gazette (no.12110, p.4; 15-18 August 1780) and reflected in the print's inscription: to right, in the background, the two frigates commencing hostilities; centrally, they lie side-by-side in port-broadside view, 'Flora''s lost wheel clearly picked out in the sea astern of her; to left, the French cutter also reported as being present. The precise moment depicted has 'Flora''s men aboard the 'Nymph', attacking her crew and striking her colours.

The 'Flora', nominally of 36 guns, was carrying an experimental addition of six 18 pounder carronades which, according to later reports, caused considerable damage, especially one handled only by the boatswain and a boy. This is considered the first occasion on which carronades were used in action.

Andrew Lindegren (d. 1783) was a Swedish iron importer resident in Portsmouth, who also erected the Grade II* listed Berkshire mansion Ascot Place in the 1770s/80s, where presumably the original painting (as yet untraced) once hung.

PAG8874 appears to be a duplicate.