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Notes
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After the Battle of St Vincent, 14 February 1797, the Spanish fleet was blockaded in Cadiz harbour by the British. The inshore squadron of the fleet was commanded by Nelson. On 3 July he sent a bomb ketch close inshore to provoke a Spanish reaction. This proved successful and Nelson launched some armed ships' boats to rescue it, with himself in his admiral's barge. He was accompanied by John Sykes, his coxswain, and Captain Thomas Fremantle. Although significantly outnumbered, the barge was soon locked in combat with a Spanish launch. In hand-to-hand fighting, Sykes twice saved Nelson's life. This image shows Nelson engaged in combat with the Spanish crew. The scene is viewed from Nelson's barge, alongside the Spanish launch. With his left leg braced on the floor of the barge, Nelson's hand grips the wrist of a Spanish sailor to turn away his pistol.
Westall has employed a language of dramatic gesture and expression to emphasise the mayhem of combat, producing a staged result to heighten the overall impact. The synchronisation of arm gestures also highlights the theatricality of the image and the neat, uniformed, co-ordinated appearance of the British trio contrasts with the unkempt appearance and wilder action of the Spanish enemy, adding to the sense of staged unreality.
Title
Nelson in Conflict with a Spanish Launch, 3 July 1797
Date
1806
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 86.4 x W 71.1 cm
Accession number
BHC2908
Acquisition method
National Maritime Museum (Greenwich Hospital Collection)
Work type
Painting