Having finally escaped the Union Navy's blockade of the Southern ports during the American Civil War, the Confederate states Steamer Sumter first cruised around the West Indies and then off South America before crossing the Atlantic in December 1862. Battered by winter storms and in urgent need of both fuel and supplies, she made Cadiz at the turn of the year but was denied coal and repair facilities as the result of diplomatic pressure from Washington. Sumter's Captain Semmes then decided to make for Gibralter and, of the Rock itsel, encountered the American barque Neopolitan homeward bound with a cargo including 50 tons of sulphur. On the basis that sulphur was a valuable commodity of war, Semmes took what food he could carry from the bargue and than destroyed her by fire.

This painting is one of a series (another was sold in these rooms, 14 April 1992, lot 112) specially commissioned by Thomas J. Coughlin to illustrate his recently published book "The Confederate Raiders".