Shortly after commissioning the British ship ‘Pearl’ Captain George Montagu was cruising off Fayal in the Azores when early in the morning he saw and chased a sail. After several hours he was able to open fire and a two hour fight ensued. The other ship eventually struck and it turned out to be the Spanish frigate ‘Santa Monica’. Though the Spanish ship was less strongly armed, Montagu’s crew was very raw since only ten of the men having been in a man-of-war before.

In the painting, the ‘Pearl’ is in the centre foreground and is shown in the process of raking the ‘Santa Monica’ in the left of the picture. In the right distance are two more British frigates. The painting is signed ‘Tho. Whitcombe 1805’.