.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Although several Piques served in the sailing navy during its final century, the most probably candidate for this charming study by Condy is likely to be the 36-gun frigate built at Plymouth and launched in July 1834. The nameship of a new class of fifth rates, she was measured at 1,633 tons burthen and carried a crew of 191 officers and men, 39 boys and 50 marines. After a short spell blockading Santander, she was chosen to convey the new Governor-General to Canada and to bring home his predecessor Lord Aylmer. Leaving Quebec on 17th September 1835, she ran aground on the Labrador coast but was eventually floated off and continued her eastward Atlantic passage despite serious damage. It was a notable feat to bring her home safely and one which gave her quite a reputation. Thereafter serving off Northern Spain and then at the bombardment of Acre in 1840, she was nearly lost a second time as the result of storm damage in the eastern Mediterranean. After seeing action during the Crimean War off the Russian Pacific coast, she was laid up until 1871 when she became an isolation hospital at Plymouth. Retaining this role until early in the twentieth century, she was finally sold for breaking in 1910.