Shannon off Boston Light - Roy Cross RSMA

Original painting in acrylic on board.

Image Size: 30 x 22 inches, signed lower right.

HMS Shannon was launched in 1806, a 38-gun Leda-class frigate and served in both the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. It is for her role in this latter conflict that she is best known, having won a hard-won and bloody naval victory on 1 June 1813 capturing the powerful United States frigate Chesapeake. 
During the action, Chespeake’s captain was mortally wounded and Captain Philip Broke of the ‘Shannon’ received a severe cutlass blow to the head from which he did recover but unable thereafter to remain on active service. From both vessels, 71 ratings were killed and 155 wounded out of a combined ships company of over 700, a very high attrition rate by even the standards of the time.
This action took place only 20 miles off the Boston Light, as pictured in the painting and the backdrop to many of my depictions of American warships of the period, most nobly the U.S.S. ‘Constitution’. It seems appropriate therefore to ‘square the circle’ by this view of a Royal Navy ship in the same waters. - Roy Cross

A larger photograph is available on request.