William Innes Pocock was the second surviving son of the marine painter Nicholas Pocock. He entered the navy, became a lieutenant in 1811, and was second lieutenant of HMS 'Eagle' when he retired in 1814. He was one of the most talented artists in the navy in the early part of the nineteenth century. At his death in 1836, the 'Gentleman's Magazine' referred to the drawings of the places he visited as being 'in a very superior style'. This drawing is one of a series made while Pocock's ship was being refitted at St Helena following damage in a storm off the Cape of Good Hope.