Flying The Red Duster

[poliphilo]

 

This is the big 18th century print I bought the other day at the recycling centre. But not my copy. My copy is hand-coloured; I did photograph it but what with needing low light so there wouldn't be reflections off the glass the image didn't come out sharp. Just picture the sea as a slatey blue and the flags as red, red, red!

"Why would you want a picture of 18th century warships?" A couple of people asked me this. 

Weeeell....

First of all it's a striking image in its own right

Secondly it's a window into another time and another headspace.

Because these aren't just any old warships, these are very particular warships depicted by an artist who will have seen them and may even have participated in the action in which they were captured.

War of the Austrian Succession.- 1740s-  one of the string of stupid wars the British and the French fought across the ages to decide who was top nation and deserved to have the most colonies. Rear Admiral Edward Hawke ambushes a convoy of French merchantmen and warships off Cape Finisterre and enters into an engagement. 700 Frenchies are killed for the loss of just over 100 sturdy British tars and six French ships are captured, Two of them sit at the centre of the print. They now fly enormous British flags (were they really that huge in actuality?) and their names are Terrible and Neptune- names that work as well in English as in French so no need for a re-christening; just have them hoist the red duster, incorporate them in his Britannic Majesty's fleet and send them off to trouble spots world-wide.

The print is dedicated, fulsomely, to Lord Halifax- or Montagu-Dunk as he was known to his intimates- the President of the Board of Trade.  Dunk was an efficient statesman and hugely corrupt- even by mid 18th century standards. He and his girlfriend, the singer Anna Maria Faulkner, were understood to have "sold every employment in his gift". He supported the American colonists, abominated the slave trade and loved cricket. Complicated guy...

Finally to the artist. Richard Sharp is obscure. We don't know when he was born or died. But we do know he was a naval officer (rank uncertain) and  a member of the force under General Wolfe that captured Quebec from the French in 1775. Shortly after the battle he produced a series of views of the captured city, some of them showing war damage, which Canadians value highly.

The print cost me a fraction of the £16 we paid for a job lot of toys and art- and for that tiny amount I get all this story....

Comments

[cmcmck]

Why would I want a picture of 18th century warships?

Maybe because I'm a military historian............

The flags were never actually that big- it's a bit of rampant nationalism.

[poliphilo]

I was thinking that had to be the case. Flags that big would be a ruddy nuisance...