A woolwork picture depicting a Fourth Rate at anchor, dressed overall, wearing the Red Ensign with a Union Jack on a jackstaff in the bows. A small paddle steamer with two funnels is shown in the foreground; the sea is calm and steamer is producing a pronounced wake. The picture is worked in the usual long and short stitch with button thread rigging, but the colour of the sky has faded badly. The embroidery is mounted in an oak frame. The ensign would seem to indicate a date before 1864 and the abolition of the squadronal system and the signal flags suggest a date after 1862. It might depict the visit of the French Fleet in 1865 before the change to exclusively white naval ensigns had been implemented, or the maker may have produced a nostalgic scene recalling the fleet reviews of the 1850s.

The maker Charles Weedon was born at Portbury, Somerset in November 1833. He entered the Royal Navy on 23 February 1859 after serving in the merchant service. He was rated Able Seaman in HMS 'Algiers' and transferred to 'Leader' May 1863, also having spent a brief period in 'Duke of Wellington'. Although he had been promoted to Leading Seaman, then to Barge Cox, in July 1865 he was disrated to Able Seaman. He was discharged to HM Dockyard Sheerness in 1868 where he worked as a rigger. In 1869 in Bristol, he married Rosa Alberta Cook, age 27. The embroideries were donated by his daughter.