'A Centinel on the Pallas's gangway, Jany 1775' [Bray album]

No. 30 of 74 (PAJ1976 - PAJ2049)

A drawing signed 'AVprGB' (to the life by Gabriel Bray) on the backing paper showing a fully uniformed Marine on sentry duty while the 'Pallas' was en route to Africa, probably at Tenerife from the date. A cutter is on the horizon to the left.

It is one of 73 drawings by Bray (plus one signed 'NF 1782') preserved in a 19th-century album. They have now been separately remounted. Bray (1750-1823), was second lieutenant of the 44-gun ‘Pallas’ under Captain the Hon. William Cornwallis (1744-1819) – later a well-known admiral - on two voyages (1774-77) to report on British interests in West Africa, including the slave trade. The dated drawings refer only to the first of these, from December 1774 to September 1775, though a few may be from the second. Others comprise country views, some of Deal, Kent (where Bray may have come from), and others of social-history interest.

Object Details

ID: PAJ2005
Collection: Fine art
Type: Drawing
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Gabriel Bray
Date made: January 1775
Exhibition: Nelson, Navy, Nation
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Purchased with the assistance of the Society for Nautical Research Macpherson Fund
Measurements: Sheet: 234 x 132 mm; 481 x 316 mm