This is a watercolour painting depicting a stern view of the HMS ‘Magicienne’, a 36-gun vessel launched for the Royal Navy in 1812, and converted into a 24-gun warship in 1831. She is shown sailing along the coast of the Isle of Wight and Hampshire, which includes the rock formation known as ‘The Needles’, as shown in the background left of the painting and mentioned in the painting’s inscription. In the right foreground of the painting there is a headland fortification, which includes a Napoleonic War-era roundtower, adorned with a British flag. The ‘Magicienne’ herself is shown sailing at full sail in what appears to be a calm sea on a calm day, flying the White Ensign from her mizzen mast. A long streaming pennant flies prominently from the mainmast. In the background, shown ahead and to port of the ‘Magicienne’, a smaller vessel is depicted, which appears to be a single-masted schooner towing a jolly boat. More of the Hampshire coast is shown in the right-side background. The date of this scene is given as March 10th 1816.