This now rather damaged watercolour may be the drawing from which Pocock had a print published in 1815 (PAD5427), though he also did another version (PAH9531) which is to all intents identical except for lacking the building on the ridge at upper far left and the mizzen mast on the lugger at far right. This could also be explained by later trimming, however, and PAH9531 is in a much better state of preservation.

On 2 January 1793 HM brig 'Childers' (14 guns), under Commander Robert Barlow, was on routine patrol off Brest - France's main Atlantic naval base - and in the calm conditions prevailing it drifted towards one of the forts defending the harbour entrance. The French opened fire and two other of the harbour forts soon followed: 48 shots were counted of which only one hit the ship but shattered and did no damage, nor were there any casualties. A wind then sprang up and the 'Childers' made sail and quickly got away, as the drawing shows. Since relations with France were then in rapid decline, the incident prompted many to think that Pitt the younger (then Prime Minister) ordered the Admiralty to send the brig inshore deliberately to provoke the French but there is no documentary evidence for this. By 11 January, Barlow was making his report at the Admiralty: ten days later, on the 21st, the Revolutionary government in Paris executed the deposed King Louis XVI. That proved the last political straw and on 1 February 1793 Britain declared war, joining the conflict already being waged aganst Revolutionary France by other European monarchies since the previous year.