Comet, Andromache and Sparrow-Hawk from a drawing by Capt Tobin RN

This watercolour shows a British frigate capturing a French brig with another vessel in the distance on the right. The name ‘W.M. Kelly’ is inscribed in ink in the lower right corner. The watercolour is glued to a mount, which is inscribed, in various hands: ‘Comet Andromache and Sparrow-Hawk’, ‘from a drawing by Capt. Tobin R.N.’ and ‘13 Dec 1810’. There is an inscription in pen-and-ink on the reverse of the drawing, apparently ending ‘Capt. Tobin R.N.’, but the text is no longer accessible due to mounting of the drawing.

The watercolour presumably depicts the capture of the French privateer ‘La Comète’ by the ‘Andromache’ (36 guns), Captain George Tobin, and the ‘Sparrow’ (16 guns), Commander Francis Erskine Loch, off Bordeaux on 14 March 1814. This means that the date given in the inscription on the mount (‘13 Dec 1810’) is incorrect. The inscription also refers erroneously to ‘Sparrow-Hawk’, rather than ‘Sparrow’. Possibly these apparent errors are the result of a misreading of the original, now hidden, inscription on the reverse of the drawing.