Nicholas Pocock

Nicholas Pocock (1740-1821) British. ‘A VIEW OF THE TRYALL, WILLIAM SAUNDERS Comm,dr, Watercolour and Pencil, fully Signed and Dated; July 1779, extensively Inscribed with Title, and ‘Length of Keel Strait Rabit, Seventy Feet’’ and ‘Breadth of the Beam, Twenty Seven Feet’’, 14.5” x 20.5”.

Nicholas Pocock (British, 1740-1821) The Battle of Cape Santa Maria the H.M.S. Indefatigable and her consorts H.M.S. Lively , H.M.S. Medusa and H.M.S. Amphion capturing the Spanish squadron and their treasure off Cape Santa Maria on October 5th 1804. oil on canvas 36-1/2 x 55 in. (92.7 x 139.7 cm.) The Battle of Cape Santa Maria took place off the southern Portuguese coast, in which a British squadron under the command of Commodore Graham Moore attacked a Spanish squadron commanded by Brigadier Don José de Bustamante y Guerra, without declaration of war between the Britain and Spain. Under the terms of a secret convention Spain had to pay 72 million francs annually to France, until it declared war on Britain. The British had learned of the treaty, and knew it was likely that Spain would declare war soon. Bustamante set sail from Montevideo on 9 August 1804 with four frigates loaded with gold and silver, as well as other valuable cargo. On 22 September Vice Admiral Lord Collingwood ordered Captain Graham Moore, commanding the 44-gun frigate HMS Indefatigable , to intercept and detain the Spanish ships, peacefully, if possible. At dawn on 5 October, the Spanish frigates were sighted off the coast of Portugal. At 7 a.m. they sighted the four British frigates. Bustamante ordered his ships into line of battle, and within an hour the British came up in line, to windward of the Spaniards. Commodore Moore, sent Lieutenant Ascott to the Spanish flagship Medea , to explain his orders. Bustamante naturally refused to surrender, and impatient of delays, at 10 a.m. Commodore Moore ordered a shot be fired ahead over the bow of Medea . Almost immediately a general exchange of fire broke out. Within ten minutes the magazine of the Mercedes exploded destroying the ship (the moment depicted in this painting), and killing all but 40 of her 240 crew. Within half an hour the Santa Clara and the Medea had surrendered, and the Fama broke away trying to flee, the H.M.S. Medusa quickly followed. However, Moore ordered the faster H.M.S. Lively to pursue, capturing the Fama a few hours later. Spain declared war on Great Britain on 14 December 1804, only to suffer a catastrophic defeat less than a year later at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805.

Nicholas Pocock (British, 1740-1821) The Avon at Bristol with Clifton Wood seen from Sea Banks signed 'N. Pocock' (lower right) oil on canvas 44.4 x 66.6cm (17 1/2 x 26 1/4in). EXHIBITED: Bristol Museums and Art Gallery, 27 March – 26 October 1997 'From Bristol to the Sea' - Artists, the Avon Gorge and Bristol Harbour 1750-1950. On the right a ship is being built in Lime Kiln Dock. The terrace of houses above the Hotwell Road obscures Thomas Goldney's garden buildings which are a prominent feature in Pococks etchings. Today the S.S. Great Britain would be just beyond the shed above the 40 oarsmen. Francis Geenacre writes - 'it is always especially exciting to see Pococks that demonstrate so perfectly both his own experience as a mariner and ship's captain and the problems of getting a vessel into Bristol'. We are grateful to Francis Geenacre for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

Nicholas Pocock (British, 1740-1821) The Avon at Bristol with Clifton Wood seen from Sea Banks signed 'N. Pocock' (lower right) oil on canvas 44.4 x 66.6cm (17 1/2 x 26 1/4in). EXHIBITED: Bristol Museums and Art Gallery, 27 March – 26 October 1997 'From Bristol to the Sea' - Artists, the Avon Gorge and Bristol Harbour 1750-1950. On the right a ship is being built in Lime Kiln Dock. The terrace of houses above the Hotwell Road obscures Thomas Goldney's garden buildings which are a prominent feature in Pococks etchings. Today the S.S. Great Britain would be just beyond the shed above the 40 oarsmen. Francis Geenacre writes - 'it is always especially exciting to see Pococks that demonstrate so perfectly both his own experience as a mariner and ship's captain and the problems of getting a vessel into Bristol'. We are grateful to Francis Geenacre for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

Nicholas Pocock, O.W.S. (Bristol 1740-1821 Maidenhead) Admiral Rodney's flagship H.M.S. Formidable , 98-guns, breaking the line, at the beginning of the Battle of the Saintes, 12 t h April 1782 signed with initials and dated 'N.P./1784' (lower left) oil on canvas 24 x 42 in. (61 x 106.7 cm.) See inside back cover illustration Private Northumberland Collection. VARIOUS PROPERTIES London, Royal Academy, 1785, no. 29, as 'The Engagement of the 12th April, 1782'. Until the end of the 18th century naval battles between equal fleets tended to end in bloody stalemate, as ships fought in line-ahead and neither side could bring superior force to bear against individual opposing ships. Pocock's picture represents a dramatic moment in the development of tactical naval warfare when the British, under Rodney, succeeded in breaking the French line and concentrating force against isolated ships of the enemy. Admiral George Brydges Rodney (1718-1792) was a great tactician though a difficult man to work with, and with the signal-book yet to be settled, he had difficulty in communicating his ideas. He had tried at the Battle of Martinique in 1780 to bring a superior force to bear by concentrating his ships on the rear of the French line, but his orders were misunderstood or not properly executed. Two years later the Battle of the Saintes, in the Caribbean between the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, took place on 12th April after several days' manoeuvring in light airs which had given Rodney's captains much-needed training in what he wanted them to do. Admiral Conte de Grasse was mounting a raid to capture Jamaica and Rodney intended to stop him. On the fourth day, as the two fleets looked to pass each other ineffectually on opposite tacks, there was shift in the wind, an opportunity which Rodney seized. Controversy followed about whose idea this was, and the extent to which the manoeuvre had been planned, but his officers understood his intentions, followed him, and the effect was decisive. The guns of the British ships were concentrated on a handful of French ships which were repeatedly raked through the weaker part of their hulls, the bows and sterns, as the British broke the French line in three places, and the tactical cohesion of the French was destroyed. This painting shows the scene shortly after 9am., when Rodney's flagship, H.M.S. Formidable, flying the signal for 'Close Action', poured her broadside into a melée of four French ships which had been cut off by his manoeuvre and the French Diadème was dismasted. By the end of the battle, Rodney had taken the French flagship, the massive 104-gun Ville de Paris, and four other ships. The captured and badly mauled Ville de Paris sank off Newfoundland, but during the Napoleonic Wars the British named a new battleship after her, as a reminder to their enemy of the Battle of the Saintes. The battle marked the end for Britain of the American War of Independence, saved Jamaica, and Rodney, who had enjoyed a string of victories, was able to write: "Within two little years I have taken two Spanish, one French and one Dutch admirals". De Grasse was taken prisoner to London. Pocock was known to research his work carefully, and when this picture was shown just two years after the battle, it would have been seen by many who were at the action, and who would have explained to other naval officers how the tactic had worked. The British would successfully break the line several times more during the ensuing French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, not least at the Battle of Trafalgar. Pocock executed several paintings of the Battle of the Saintes and amongst the papers from his studio sold at Messrs. Hodgson on 18th June 1913, were watercolour plans of the battle, drawings of flags and signals and lists of the two fleets. Nicholas Pocock was the son of Nicholas Pocock (c.1709-1759), a Bristol seaman, to whom he was apprenticed. His mother, Mary Innes, was related to the Duke of Roxburgh. By 1766, Pocock was in command of the Lloyd, a merchant ship belonging to Richard Champion, maker of Bristol porcelain. He was subsequently master of Champion's ships Betsey and Minerva. Pocock made at least twelve voyages to America, as well as trips to the West Indies and the Mediterranean. In 1794, he witnessed the Battle of the Glorious First of June aboard H.M.S. Pegasus with Lord Howe's fleet. Pocock kept detailed logbooks during these voyages illustrated with meticulous pen and wash drawings which he extensively annotated. His twenty years of experience as a merchant seaman stood him in good stead as a marine artist, although he did not seriously take up painting until about 1778. In 1780 he married Anne Evans (1752-1827), with whom he had nine children, including the artist William Innes Pocock. In 1789, Pocock moved to London and established his reputation as a successful marine painter. He received numerous commissions to depict naval engagements and battles and took painstaking care in obtaining first-hand information from those who had participated, which included correspondence, sketches and diagrams. His patrons included Admiral Lord Hood and his naval brother, Lord Bridport, as well as Lord Barham, First Lord of the Admiralty. Pocock's output included a series of paintings engraved for J.S. Clarke and J. McArthur's official Life of Admiral Lord Nelson, 1809. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy (1782-1815), the British Institution (1806-1810) and was a founder member of the Old Watercolour Society (1804). He died in Maidenhead in 1821.