This coloured aquatint depicts a naval battle scene that took place on the 3rd of February 1814, off the coasts of the Azores. The main protagonist of this painting is the HMS ‘Majestic’, shown in the left foreground. Formerly a 74-gun Third-Rate warship, she had her guns reduced in 1813, and at the time of the depicted engagement would have had 58-guns as a Fourth-Rate ship-of-the-line.

The ‘Majestic’ is shown firing a port broadside, the smoke from her cannons is clearly visible in the centre foreground. A British ensign adorns her mizzen mast, while a long pennant flies from the main mast.

The ‘Majestic’ is firing her broadside while engaging two French frigates, both shown flying the French Tricolour prominently from their mizzen masts. One of these vessels is the 44-gun frigate ‘Terpsichore’, which the ‘Majestic’ captured in this engagement. The other frigate is the ‘Atalante’, another 44-gun vessel, though it is unclear exactly which ship is which in this painting.

In the right hand background of the painting, two other ships are shown in the distance. The one on the left is also shown flying a French tricolour, and is most likely the unnamed brig that was known to be accompanying the two frigates on 3rd February. To the right of this is a Spanish vessel, described as a ‘Lima ship’ in the inscription, which also appears to be a naval brig.

In the far left of the painting, astern and far to port of the ‘Majestic’ is an unidentified American privateer vessel – the nationality of this ship is shown by the early Stars and Stripes flag (the ‘Betsy Ross’ version with a ring of 13 stars) flying prominently from the mizzen mast. The US vessel, together with the French and Spanish brigs, is shown to be retreating from the battle.

The sky is shown with patchy clouds and rays of sunlight spilling through, with a moderately choppy sea, marred by gunpowder smoke from the ‘Majestic’. An inscription describing this small engagement (which is recorded as lasting two and a half hours) is present below.