An English 3rd-Rate Ship of the Line in Three Positions
by ANDERSON, William, Oil on canvas, 84 x 130 cm
The painting depicts an English 3rd-rate ship of the line (74 guns) in three positions off Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa, flying the Royal Nay ensign.
The popularity and prestige of the large two-decker 74-gun Ships of the line (“74”) reached its peak during the French Revolutionary War when the British found that not only did they sail better than the stately three-decker but that by superior gunnery and training their two-deckers could be a match for any enemy warship, even three-deckers of over one hundred guns. Napoleon Bonaparte was sent to St Helena in the Northumberland 74 after he had surrendered to the captain of Bellerophon 74. For years the very words seventy-four were synonymous to the British public with an invincible naval supremacy.