A manuscript note by Pocock with a small diagram showing the entry to Brest and the adjacent coast. At the top Pocock has written: 'Mem: for a picture for Lady Neale. Subject Sir Harry Burrard Neale in the San Fiorenzo with the Nymphe Engaged & captured Two very Large French Frigates (one of 56 Guns) in sight of their Fleet in Brest water.' The drawing below shows the entry to Brest, top centre, with lines indicating ships’ masts inside. The Pointe de St Matthieu, to the north (left), is marked as '4 Miles distant'. 'Rock + 1/2 Mile dis' indicates the position of La Parquette (the Parquet Rock), in the approach to Brest, off which the action took place. Pocock has also added 'Topsails to be set in both English Frigates'. The fine oil painting of Neale's action of 9 March 1797, of which this is the commissioning note, is also in the NMM collection (BHC0495). Exhibited: NMM Pocock exhib. (1975) no. 108, with a related note probably by Sir Harry Neale (text printed in David Cordingly, 'Nicholas Pocock' (1986) p.11), including mention of the price of the finished picture as £25 guineas excluding the frame.