53 x 25.5 cm, a hand coloured aquatint etching after Lieutenant J. F. Warre RN, published by Ackermann, London, July 1841.

Synopsis

This coloured aquatint depicts the attack on St Jean d’Acre on 3 November 1840, which was successively carried out by ships of the line ‘Powerful’, ‘Princess Charlotte’, ‘Bellerophon’, and ‘Thunderer’, and the frigate ‘Pique’, depicted close-reefed in an arc of starboard views (in the reverse sequence, left to right), with Acre, dramatically aflame, behind. Also prominently shown, front right, is the paddle steamer ‘Phoenix’, from on board which Stopford commanded and observed the bombardment, thus obtaining a view less obscured by smoke. The moment shown would appear to coincide with the huge explosion around 4 pm of the city’s powder magazine, which claimed over 1,000 lives. ‘Gorgon’ is the vessel closest to the viewer, in the lower right of the picture. According to one of the inscriptions, Hawkins made his drawing for this lithograph on board the ‘Pique’ at Acre on 12 July 1894. British Museum reference: 1940,1214.58.