The cutter Nimrod was designed by T. Wanhill of Poole, Dorset, but built by Hayles of Cork in 1845. Registered at 51 tons, she measured 58.8 feet in length, with a 14.8 foot beam and an 8.8 foot draught. Owned by H. Bridson, Rear Commodore (sic) of the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland, when painted by Fowles in 1857, when the first Lloyd's Yacht Register was published in 1878 she is noted as the property of Major J. Blackwood Colwell, sailing out of Dartmouth. In the 1889-90 Register she is listed as being "broken up" although whilst her owner is still given as Major Colwell, it gives him as being at the "South of England Yacht Agency" at Portsmouth. Since Colwell is listed as also owning three other yachts, this would suggest that Nimrod was simply a charter boat in her final years.
The colours of the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland were the source of some annoyance as well as a protracted dispute with the Royal Yacht Squadron in the 1850's because they were practically identical. The only difference between the two clubs' flags was the Royal Western's tiny wreath of very pale shamrock leaves around the central crown which, particularly at a distance, made them almost indistinguishable from those of what was, even then, the most exclusive yacht club in the world. The rather mischievous secretary of the Royal Western used this similarity with considerable success as a recruiting aid until parliamentary involvement forced them to make a change after 1859.