cannon

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—- Commander Edward Vernon Yates– John George (c.1765)

“The NMM Sea Officers’ List as annotated by Commander Pitcairn-Jones appears to record this sitter variably as ‘Yates’ and ‘Yeates’ but these are fairly clearly the same man. He was third lieutenant of the ‘Dover’ in 1756, second of the ‘Lyme’ in 1757 and, on promotion, commanded the
‘Wasp’, sloop, from 1760 and the ‘Ranger’, sloop, from 1777. He
presumably went onto half-pay about 1780, had no further active naval
employment, and died on 20 April 1801. His first names suggest  that
Admiral Edward (‘Grog’) Vernon, who died in 1757, was a namesake whom
Yates’s parents had reason to compliment this way: taking dates into
account the most likely explanation is that Yates’s father was also
naval and served under him as as close ‘follower’.” (x)

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—-Divine service as it is usually performed on board a British frigate at sea– Augustus Earle (c.1820-37)

“The cramped ship-board service has provided this opportunity for close observation and detail. The service takes place on the gun deck above
that of BHC1118, with daylight visible through the hatches. A capstan
runs vertically through the centre of the image, and the companion
ladder is empty. There is a clear division between the Navy to the left
and marines to the right. An admiral, wearing a pig-tail, looks at a
book at a table covered with a flag, sitting on a chair draped with the
union flag. In front of him a midshipman possibly reads a lesson from
the Bible, attended to in varying degrees by the assembly. There are
five figures behind the Admiral’s table. A naval officer far left a hand
in his pocket, turns away from the assembly and his smile invites the
viewer to question the content of his book. Behind him a fellow officer,
feet resting on a cannon, appears to sleep. To his right, a marine
colonel catches the eye of another marine officer standing on the far
right, and at his feet a small midshipman sits on a stool holding one
bible while another lies unopened on the deck.

In the foreground to the right, a naval officer appears to be asleep,
with an open picture book resting on his lap, and a hat lies discarded
nearby. Other naval officers are seated facing the admiral apparently in
various attitudes of boredom and, in the background, one sailor seems
to have been chastised for inattention by a naval officer bearing a
stick. On the right, none of the seated marines, with attitudes varying
from attending to yawning, holds a book. One woman, her arms folded, is
portrayed in the front row. A military drum is suspended above the
marines’ heads. The impression of cramped space is accentuated by the
sick man in the cradle, his head propped in his hand as he reads from
the open book, immediately above the marines. A figure visible only by
the top of his head may be a prisoner. Various objects hang from the
bulkheads and beams, baskets of cannon balls, axes, a slate, hourglass,
lantern and key. The two parrots are enclosed in their cage and
underscore the sailors’ and marines’ enforced predicament and duty,
since religion played little part in a seaman’s life. Exhibited at the
Royal Academy in 1837, it forms a companion piece to BHC1118.

The artist used his numerous watercolour sketches made on board HMS
‘Hyperion’, during a voyage to Rio de Janeiro in 1820, and his later
journey in the ‘Beagle’ with Darwin as official artist. Some of the
figures may be portraits observed on those voyages.” (x)

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—- Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet– Lemuel Francis Abbott (c.1799)

“Admiral of the Fleet Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet (1721–1811) was a British naval officer. Peter Parker was born probably in Ireland. He became a lieutenant in the Royal Navy in 1743 and captain in 1747. In 1761, he took command of HMS Buckingham and helped cover operations on Belle Île. For 10 years he was out of the service on account of the reduction of the navy. He was knighted in 1772 and rejoined the service in 1773.

During the American Revolution, he was sent to provide naval support for an expedition reinforcing Loyalists in the Southern Colonies. Parker hoisted his flag aboard HMS Bristol, and on June 28, 1776, led a naval attack against the fortifications on Sullivan’s Island (later called Fort Moultrie after their commander), protecting Charleston, South Carolina. After a long and hard-fought battle, Parker was forced to call off the attack, having sustained heavy casualties, including the loss of HMS Actaeon, grounded and abandoned. Commodore Parker was himself wounded by a flying splinter which injured his leg and tore off his breeches, an incident that occasioned much mirth in the newspapers.

He subsequently served under Lord Howe in the invasion and capture of New York City and commanded the squadron that captured Newport, Rhode Island, and later became Commander-in-Chief, North American Waters, and then Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica. At this time, Parker acted as a patron and friend of Horatio Nelson, then serving aboard the Bristol, an attachment which would endure for the remainder of Nelson’s life.

He was created baronet in 1783. In 1793 he became Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth. In 1799 he succeeded Lord Howe as Admiral of the Fleet, and was Chief Mourner at Lord Nelson’s funeral in 1806.” (x)

A ballad written on the occasion of his battle at Sullivan’s Island (x)

A Narrative by Sir Peter Parker of his Attack on Sullivan’s Island, June 28, 1775 (x)

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—- Captain Lambert Brabazon– Robert Hunter (c. 1782)

“Lambert Brabazon, who was of Irish origin, became Lieutenant in 1758 and Captain in 1782 when this portrait may have been painted. In 1783 he was flag-captain to Sir Francis Drake in the Leeward Islands and at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793 he took charge of the impressment service in Dublin. Following the death of Sir Alexander Schomberg in 1803 he took over the command of the ‘Dorset’, the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland’s yacht, until 1811.” (x)