—- Admiral Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan– Henri-Pierre Danloux (1798) (x)

—- Captain James Bowen– British School (c. early 1800s)

“James Bowen first went to sea in the merchant service and by 1776 commanded a ship in the African and West Indies trade. Shortly after he joined the Navy as a master, serving with Captain John Macbride in the ‘Artois’, 1781–82, seeing action at the Battle of Dogger Bank on 5 August 1781. He stayed with Macbride in several ships until 1789, when he was appointed agent for transports in the Thames.

With the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War, Lord Howe requested that Bowen by master of his flagship, the ‘Queen Charlotte’, which piloted into action at the Glorious First of June. Howe gave the order ‘Starboard!’ to which Bowen responded: ‘My lord, you’ll be foul of the French ship if you don’t take care.’ Howe was determined and yelled back ‘What is it to you sir? Starboard!’ Bowen cried ‘Starboard!’ and then audibly muttered ‘Damned if I care, if you don’t. I’ll take you near enough to singe your black whiskers.’ This he essentially achieved, passing so close by the stern of the French flagship ‘Montagne’ that her ensign brushed the main and mizzen shrouds of the ‘Royal Charlotte’ as a broadside was fired into the enemy ship. This demonstration of excellent seamanship earned Bowen his promotion to lieutenant on 23 June 1794.

Further service followed and he was promoted captain on 2 September 1795, commanding the ‘Thunderer’ in the West Indies. He then commanded the 44-gun ‘Argo’ in the Mediterranean before being employed on convoy duty, gaining the commendation of the East India Company. At St Vincent’s suggestion he was nominated a commissioner of the transport board in 1803, where is practical skills and experience proved invaluable. He gained the thanks of both Houses of Parliament for his part overseeing the re-embarkation of the army at Corunna in 1809. Bowen was appointed one of the commissioners of the Navy in February 1816 and continued in the role until August 1825, when he retired with the rank of rear-admiral.” (x)

—- Portrait of a Warrant Officer– British School (c.1790) (x)

—- Lieutenant William Pasco– British School (c. 1830) (x)

“William Montagu Isaacson George Pasco was the eldest son of Rear-Admiral John Pasco (see BHC2284). He entered the Navy on 3 February 1820 and was promoted lieutenant on 8 January 1830. He served two commissions on the South American station: the first in the 50-gun ‘Dublin’, 1831–34, and the second in the 18-gun ‘Rover’, 1835–38. Between 1838 and 1842, he served in the Coast Guard. On 18 May 1842 he was appointed to command the steamer ‘Kite’ off the African coast, returning the following year, and on 7 April 1845 he took command of the steamer ‘Jackal’ in the Mediterranean. The ‘Kite’ was paid off in 1846 and Pasco was promoted commander on 9 November that year.” (x)

—- Captain Charles Morice Pole– John Francis Rigaud (1781)

“Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Morice Pole, 1st Baronet (18 January 1757 – 6 September 1830) naval officer and colonial governor born England and died Denham Abbey, Hertfordshire, England.

Pole entered the Royal Academy in 1770 and served in the East Indies. He had also participated in the siege of Pondicherry and at the occupation of Toulon in 1793. Pole was promoted rear-admiral in 1795 and served in the West Indies. He was appointed governor of Newfoundland on 3 June 1800. His term ended in 1801. He was promoted Admiral of the Fleet in 1830.” (x)

—- Commander or Captain John Walter Roberts– attrib. Samuel Lane (c.1812-1825)

“Roberts entered the Navy in 1804 as a volunteer in the ‘Medusa’ commanded by his uncle Sir John Gore, under whom he escorted Lord Cornwallis as Governor-General to India, covering the return journey of 13,831 miles in a remarkable 82 days. In 1806 as a midshipman in the ‘Revenge’ he served off Brest and L’Orient and for nine months at the blockade of Rochefort where he witnessed on 25 September the capture of four French frigates by a squadron under Sir Samuel Hood.” (x)

His entry in the Royal Navy Biography (x)

—- Captain, later Admiral, Sir Walter Stirling– James Northcote (c.1780)

“Admiral Sir Walter Stirling (18 May 1718 – 24 November 1786) was an admiral in the Royal Navy.

Born in 1718, Walter Stirling entered the Royal Navy. He was made “The Regulating Captain of the Impress at the Tower”. On 30 October 1753 he married Dorothy Willing, the daughter of Charles Willing, a Philadelphia merchant. According to family stories, he persuaded the family of Horatio Nelson to let Horatio join the navy, and he lost the opportunity to be appointed Governor of Halifax as he was visiting his wife in Scotland when the offer came in. In 1780 he was captain of the Gibraltar, and was present when Admiral George Rodney captured the island of Sint Eustatius from the Dutch during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. Selected to take home dispatches, he was knighted on arrival. In 1782 he appointed Commander-in-Chief at the Nore. When King George III inspected Stirling’s ships, he was so impressed that he offered to make Stirling a baronet. Stirling declined, but his eldest son, also named Walter, later claimed the title, becoming Sir Walter Stirling, 1st Baronet of Faskine. He died in London in November 1786.” (x)

—- An unidentified Royal Naval captain- J. Palmer (c.1825-1827)

—- A merchant naval captain- attrib. George Chinnery (c.1830)

“A three-quarter-length portrait of a merchant captain facing slightly to the right and looking towards the viewer. He wears a naval jacket and gold braid, blue trousers, white shirt and a loose black cravat, and he holds a telescope.

He is portrayed on the deck of a ship with mast shrouds behind him to the left. The landscape and shipping behind denotes China and, more specifically perhaps, Canton. The artist spent the last 50 years of his life in India and China, where he arrived in 1825. Although no available documentary evidence confirms it, this portrait has been attributed to Chinnery. He worked with a Chinese copyist called Lamqua who produced copies of his portraits for sitters to send home to their families in Europe. There were also other European artists working and making portraits in China at the same period.” (x)

—- Rear-Admiral Richard Kempenfelt- Tilly Kettle (1782)

“Painted in the year of the sitter’s death, it may have been done posthumously. The beach on which he stands is littered with naval stores and in the left background are two first-rates, the nearer probably the ‘Victory’, 100 guns, with a blue ensign and a Union at the mizzen, apparently to distinguish him from the rear-admiral of the blue when at sea without the fleet admiral commanding-in-chief. At the end of 1781 Kempenfelt was sent in the ‘Victory’, the fleet flagship, with a squadron to intercept an important French convoy which was sailing to reinforce their holdings in the West Indies. Although Kempenfelt found the French escort much stronger than his force, it had been carelessly placed ahead and to leeward of the convoy. He was therefore able to rout the merchantmen undisturbed, taking fifteen and destroying four. The rest were scattered and almost all the survivors returned to Brest. After Howe assumed command in 1782, Kempenfelt shifted to the ‘Royal George’, 100 guns, as a junior flag officer and he was drowned in her when she sank at anchor at Spithead in August, together with over 800 other people. Kempenfelt was also the inventor of a numeral signal code that helped to revolutionize naval tactics.” (x)

“HMS Royal George was a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Woolwich Dockyard and launched on 18 February 1756. The largest warship in the world at the time of launching, she saw service during the Seven Years’ War including being Admiral Sir Edward Hawke’s flagship at the Battle of Quiberon Bay and later taking part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent. She sank undergoing routine maintenance work whilst anchored off Portsmouth on 29 August 1782 with the loss of more than 800 lives, one of the most serious maritime losses to occur in British waters.” (x)