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Lot Essay
The battle of the Nile, 1stAugust 1798, also known as the battle of Aboukir Bay, was one of the key naval battles of the French Revolutionary Wars (1789-1799). General Napoleon Bonaparte was intent on invading Egypt in order to limit British trade routes and threaten her position in India. A British fleet of fourteen ships-of-the-line (thirteen 74-gun and one 50-gun) was sent to intervene under the command of Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson. Nelson spotted the French fleet of thirteen ships-of-the-line (one 120-gun, three 80-gun and nine 74-gun), led by Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers, at anchor in Aboukir Bay close to sunset on 1stAugust 1798. Brueys had arranged his ships parallel to the shoal in order that their port sides be protected from gunfire. The Goliath, leading the British line, made a critical observation as she reached the head of the French line, its commander noticing that the French were only anchored by the bow (rather than by bow and stern), indicating sufficient depth between the French and the shoal to swing around behind them without grounding. Nelson's fleet subsequently divided in two; the first section passing between the French line and the shoal, and the second closing in from the seaward side, in order that the French fleet might be attacked from both sides. The result was devastating for the French who, believing themselves safe from attack from the shoreward side, had not even cleared their port guns for action. Nelson was badly injured when his ship, the Vanguard, attacked the centre of the line. He was taken below deck, believed to be dying, but insisted on being brought back up to watch the remainder of the battle.
The battle reached a climax when Napoleon's massive flagship, the 120-gun L'Orient, after over an hour quite literally locked in bloody close battle with the diminuitive Bellerophon, was attacked by the Alexander and Swiftsure, the Alexander's bombardment of her vulnerable stern causing a fire to take hold in the stern cabin. By nine o'clock that evening, L'Orient was in flames and there was a pause in the battle as ships sought to distance themselves from the flaming vessel: 'Admiral de Brueys was dead before his ship blew up. His heroism became a legend in the French Navy. He had been hit in the face and left hand by musket shot fired from the Bellerophon but he had the wounds bound up and continued to direct operations. Both his legs were then shot away but still he refused to leave the deck. According to some French accounts he had tourniquets tied around the stumps, got himself strapped in a chair and was heard to say that a French admiral ought to die on his own quarterdeck. His bravery proved fatal because he was in an exposed position. He was hit again, this time by a cannon ball which nearly cut him in two. His flag captain, Commodore Casabianca, was also mortally wounded. His young son refused to leave his side, and this later inspired the poem by Felicia Hemans with the familiar opening lines, 'The boy stood on the burning deck whence all but he had fled.' Father and son took to the water and were last seen clinging to a floating mast. Admiral Ganteaume, several other officers, and many of the crew also abandoned ship, realising that it was only a matter of time before the fire reached the gunpowder in the magazine.' (D. Cordingly, op. cit., p.150).
Whitcombe has depicted the moment shortly before the fire reached the magazine and the flagship exploded. The sound of the blast was heard thirty-two kilometres away in Rosetta and its glow witnessed in Alexandria. Fighting resumed until dawn, when the British claimed their decisive victory. The British had lost 213 men and 677 were wounded. The French had suffered the far greater loss of 1400 men, with 600 wounded and 3000 taken prisoner. In addition, three French ships had been burnt, nine captured and one frigate sunk.
The battle of the Nile established the supremacy of the Royal Navy for the remainder of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and added to Nelson's growing status, now Baron Nelson of the Nile. Admiral Villeneuve, third in command of the French fleet, would meet Nelson again at the battle of Trafalgar on 21stOctober 1805.
Whitcombe was one of the leading painters of the French Revolutionary Wars. He spent the majority of his working life in London and executed over 150 actions of the British fleet, together with fifty plates for J. Jenkins's publication, Naval Achievements of Great Britain, during his career. He exhibited a total of 56 marine paintings at the Royal Academy between 1783 and 1824 and exhibited at the British Institute in 1820. Whitcombe executed three other images of the battle of the Nile, now at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. These focus on the beginning and end of the action, rather than on the dramatic and decisive moment depicted here.
The battle reached a climax when Napoleon's massive flagship, the 120-gun L'Orient, after over an hour quite literally locked in bloody close battle with the diminuitive Bellerophon, was attacked by the Alexander and Swiftsure, the Alexander's bombardment of her vulnerable stern causing a fire to take hold in the stern cabin. By nine o'clock that evening, L'Orient was in flames and there was a pause in the battle as ships sought to distance themselves from the flaming vessel: 'Admiral de Brueys was dead before his ship blew up. His heroism became a legend in the French Navy. He had been hit in the face and left hand by musket shot fired from the Bellerophon but he had the wounds bound up and continued to direct operations. Both his legs were then shot away but still he refused to leave the deck. According to some French accounts he had tourniquets tied around the stumps, got himself strapped in a chair and was heard to say that a French admiral ought to die on his own quarterdeck. His bravery proved fatal because he was in an exposed position. He was hit again, this time by a cannon ball which nearly cut him in two. His flag captain, Commodore Casabianca, was also mortally wounded. His young son refused to leave his side, and this later inspired the poem by Felicia Hemans with the familiar opening lines, 'The boy stood on the burning deck whence all but he had fled.' Father and son took to the water and were last seen clinging to a floating mast. Admiral Ganteaume, several other officers, and many of the crew also abandoned ship, realising that it was only a matter of time before the fire reached the gunpowder in the magazine.' (D. Cordingly, op. cit., p.150).
Whitcombe has depicted the moment shortly before the fire reached the magazine and the flagship exploded. The sound of the blast was heard thirty-two kilometres away in Rosetta and its glow witnessed in Alexandria. Fighting resumed until dawn, when the British claimed their decisive victory. The British had lost 213 men and 677 were wounded. The French had suffered the far greater loss of 1400 men, with 600 wounded and 3000 taken prisoner. In addition, three French ships had been burnt, nine captured and one frigate sunk.
The battle of the Nile established the supremacy of the Royal Navy for the remainder of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and added to Nelson's growing status, now Baron Nelson of the Nile. Admiral Villeneuve, third in command of the French fleet, would meet Nelson again at the battle of Trafalgar on 21
Whitcombe was one of the leading painters of the French Revolutionary Wars. He spent the majority of his working life in London and executed over 150 actions of the British fleet, together with fifty plates for J. Jenkins's publication, Naval Achievements of Great Britain, during his career. He exhibited a total of 56 marine paintings at the Royal Academy between 1783 and 1824 and exhibited at the British Institute in 1820. Whitcombe executed three other images of the battle of the Nile, now at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. These focus on the beginning and end of the action, rather than on the dramatic and decisive moment depicted here.