Ship portrait. The Essex (1,200 tons) was built at Perry's Yard in 1802, it carried twenty-six guns and a complement of 130 men. The vessel made seven voyages to India and China between 1803 and 1820. Its service with the East India Company started badly when the crew engaged for the first voyage refused to sail the vessel out of the Thames. With the renewal of war with France in May 1803 the seamen, who had originally been retained on peacetime rates, demanded the higher wartime rate of pay of forty-five shillings. The ship's husbandman, Henry Bonham, was forced to distribute a bounty of £342 among the crew in order to convince them to sail. The ship, under the command of Captain George Bonham, eventually began its maiden voyage to Ceylon and Bombay from Portsmouth on 30 June 1803. (The painting shows the Essex in two positions).