This battery faces along the length of Grand Harbour and shows the guns in action. One of the British blockading vessels can be seen watching the entrance. Two of the French ships can be seen, one to the left under St Lazarus Curtain, the mast-top of the other with tricoleur peeping out from Dockyard Creek to the right. The armament shown comprises bracket-tail cannons and one ships cannon. The troops are a mixture of British regular and Maltese irregulars. To the left a group of officers (one marine, two dragoon and a Royal Naval Captain in full dress) converse with a sword-bearing fusilier sergeant on sentry-duty. Above the officers a shot fired towards the battery from Valletta strikes the Jesuits building and could well be a visual clue painted by the artist to indicate the identity of the Royal Naval officer, namely that of Captain (later Sir) Alexander "Ball" R.N.

We are grateful to Ian Bouskill for his assistance in cataloguing this picture.