'Two Marines on the Pallas's Gangway, Jany 75' [Bray album]

No. 31 of 74 (PAJ1976 - PAJ2049)

A drawing of two marines signed 'AVprGB' (to the life by Gabriel Bray) on the backing paper. One of the Marines, is apparently trying to take something out of the other's eye, probably while the 'Pallas' was at Tenerife en route for Africa. 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: PAJ2006
Collection: Fine art
Type: Drawing
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Gabriel Bray
Date made: Jan 1775
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Purchased with the assistance of the Society for Nautical Research Macpherson Fund
Measurements: 203 x 131 mm