This coloured aquatint depicts the Bombardment of Algiers by night, with ships of the line (ranged left to right, inscribed beneath) ‘Leander’, ‘Queen Charlotte’, ‘Granicus’, ‘Superb’, ‘Mindon’, Albion' and ‘Impregnable’. ‘Granicus’ is shown in the centre left of the composition, from her stern quarter, the smoke from her broadside backlit by the raging fires ashore. The bombardment of Algiers was part of a continuing campaign by the European and American navies to suppress piracy against Europeans by the North African Barbary states. The specific aim of this expedition, in which an Anglo-Dutch fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Exmouth bombarded ships and the harbour defences of Algiers, was to free Christian slaves and to stop the practice of enslaving Europeans. To this end it was partially successful, as the Dey of Algiers freed around 3,000 slaves following the bombardment and signed a treaty against the enslavement of Europeans. This slavery did not end completely, however, until the European conquest of Africa. The print is dedicated to Lord Viscount Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty.