Muscat Cove; East Indiamen engaging dhows off the Trucial Coast; View of Dhows off Ajman, with the fortified palace of Rashid ibn Humayd Al Nuaimi, Sheikh of Ajman (1816-1838) ('scene -- town of Emaun on the Arabia Coast Persian Gulf'); A Qawasim Baghlah off the Trucial Coast ('Persian Gulf Arab Coast'); H.C. Boat Janet commanded by Lt. J.C. Hawkins; and 'Marine Sepahie' ('Sepahie or Sepoy -- serve on board the Cruisers as Marines Nautilus' complement being a Havildar/Sergeant & 14 Sepoys')

In December 1819 the Bombay government, intent on ending the Arab piracy and French privateering which were having serious consequences to the trade of pearls, silk, spices and opium in the Persian Gulf, sent an expeditionary force under the joint command of Major General Sir William Grant Keir and Sayyid Sa'id, the Sultan of Muscat and Oman, to reduce the Qawasim fleet at Ras al-Khaimah and the Beni Bou Ali at Sohar (Oman). The action culminated in the signing of the General Maritime Treaty on the 8 January 1820 between the British and the sheikhdoms of Ajman, Dubai, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Qaiwain which accepted a protectorate to keep the Ottoman Turks out. As part of the treaty the sheikhdom of Ajman was declared independent by the British. These sheikdoms eventually became known as the Trucial States or Trucial Oman, now the United Arab Emirates.

The present watercolours believed to have been executed in 1819/1820 include a rare early view of Ajman and the fortified palace of the ruler Rashid ibn Humayd Al Nuaimi, Sheikh of Ajman (1816-1838). Also of historic importance are the watercolours of two different classes of Qawasim fighting dhows flying the full red flag. This flag was changed to include white following the signing of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820.

The artist Captain William Igglesden was a naval officer in the Honourable East India Company and was serving on board the Nautilus, one of the principal vessels at the reduction of Ras al- Khyma and is believed to have presented these watercolours to his friend Captain John Croft Hawkins (1798-1851) who also served at the same action. Hawkins went on to command the ship Clive until 1829 and it was in this period that he was presented with a scimitar, engraved 'Presented by His Highness the Imaum of Muscat To Captain Hawkins of the Indian Navy, 1829' which is now in the collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.