Nothing off Boy Luff!

This watercolour shows a midshipman at the helm of a small naval vessel. It shows the double wheel used on many ships in this period, which was designed to provide extra leverage and control in bad weather by allowing up to four individuals to manage the wheel. A binnacle is depicted in the lower right corner of the image. It is of the type holding two compasses with a lamp between them for night-time illumination, as shown by the small central heat-grill on top above the lamp. The box arrangement behind the cabin skylight may be a chicken coop. Behind it is a logline on a reel set in the taffrail, beside the port boat davit. The caption ('Nothing off Boy Luff!') refers to the tendency of the vessel to fall away from the wind, requiring some exertion by the helmsman to luff-up (i.e. steer nearer the wind) in order to hold the required compass course.

The watercolour is part of an album containing fifty-seven drawings (PAH4886–PAH4943) created by British naval officer Aiskew Paffard Hollis (1764–1844) during the late 1780s and the 1790s. The majority relate to his service as a lieutenant in ‘Pegase’ in 1785–90, in ‘Andromeda’ in 1790–93 and in ‘Queen’ in 1793–96. Included are portraits of Hollis’s shipmates, often with humorous captions, as well as scenes of everyday life ashore and afloat.