Sales catalogue: Sotheby's

Date:
April 1928
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/20/734
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue: Sotheby's. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/92 (page 16)
    43 THE WASP, 28 JUNE, 1814. A SERIES OF FOUR REMARKABLY FINE WATER-COLOUR DRAWINGS, ATTRIBUTED TO J. T. SeRRES, each 14471. by 18} %n., within wash borders Plate I represents the Commencement of the Action on the Reindeer weathering the Wasp and passing ahead of her, when both vessels open their bow guns. The Wasp is in the act of putting her helm down and letting fly the head sheets to tack under the Reindeer’s bow Plate II represents the Wasp with her gib boom in the Reindeer’s lee rigging Plate IiI. The vessels are alongside each other when superior weight, both of metal and of numbers overpower every effort made by the gallant Captain of the Reindeer Plate IV. The hull of the Wasp in the act of sinking the Reindeer, and putting part of her crew on board a Portuguese vessel for a passage to Plymouth The Wasp was sister to the Peacock and the most famous of her class. After making many daring captures in the Channel, she encountered the Reindeer. The latter was at a considerable disadvantage—both in guns and men—and Captain Manners, who was finally shot dead after being repeatedly hit, made a last desperate attempt to run his brig aboard the Wasp, whose crew then boarded and captured the Reindeer. The Wasp never returned to port and her fate remains one of the ocean mysteries. with a contemporary MS. description of the drawings, 2 pp. folvo