£4,000 - £6,000
THOMAS LUNY (1759-1837). THE WRECK OF THE EAST INDIAMAN `DUTTON` AT PLYMOUTH SOUND, JANUARY 26th 1796. Signed and dated 1834, oil on canvas 60 x 85cm. Provenance: By descent in a family collection, Devon. * The composition exists in a number of variants, most notably at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich (dated 1821 but possibly as late as 1835). For an artist who had settled in Teignmouth, this heroic theme proved popular throughout Devon and Luny revisited the theme in different formats. The 762-ton East Indiaman `Dutton` was built at Deptford and launched in July 1781. She was renamed `Dutton` having been built as `Director`. She sailed from Portsmouth under Captain James West on her maiden voyage to China via the Coromandel Coast of India in February 1782. She made subsequent trips to the East until 1795. In that year, the British government requisitioned her as troop transport for an expedition to the West Indies. Her sailing from Portsmouth in October 1795 was soon thwarted by illness amongst most of her company. Returning to Plymouth Sound in January 1796, she ran ashore and the heavy seas soon broke her up. Edward Pellew, then stationed at Plymouth, happened to see the disaster unfolding as he was passing nearby on his way to dinner. He ran to board the vessel, now deserted by her officers, and used calm authority to get a line ashore. With assistance, everyone aboard was saved: Pellew was awarded a baronetcy for his quick thinking and selflessness. Edward Pellew, later Viscount Exmouth (1757-1833), was a distinguished frigate captain. He was the son of the commander of a Dover packet and entered the Royal Navy in 1770, serving in the American War of Independence before capturing the first French frigate of the Revolutionary War (for which he was knighted). In 1797, he used wily skill to overcome the French vessel `Droits de l'Homme` and he was later promoted Rear-Admiral in 1804 before becoming Admiral of the Blue in 1814 and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1815. Ennobled with a Viscountcy after success at Algiers in 1816, he was made Commander-in-Chief at Plymouth from 1817-21. A year before his death in 1833, he was promoted Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom.
Lined; scattered retouching; in need of a light clean.
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