[For an image of this painting please refer to the ArtUK web pages at https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-ship-pascoa-173247]

Ship portrait of a full-rigged ship in port-broadside view on a calm sea with all sail set, including skysails above the royals. It appears to have an early 19th-century round bow form and a small but indistinct red figurehead, and is painted as a 24-gun vessel though, as a merchantman, probably with 'painted ports' rather than really being so heavily armed. It flies a red ensign astern and is identified by an inscription in capitals on a plain strip at the bottom of the canvas: 'Ship Pascoa under sail August 1st 1832. China Sea'. There appears to have been only one 'Pascoa', which was a Bombay 'country' ship (i.e., a British East India vessel operating solely in Eastern seas). When and where it was built are unknown but it was operating from Bombay in 1822-24 and from 1827 to 1833 between Calcutta and China under a master called William Morgan: from 1831 if was under Indian owners called Cumsetjee and Jehangir Ardesir. The sole information on it - including that it was of 117 tons burthen - is that recorded in Anne Bulley's 'The Bombay Country Ships, 1790-1833' from references in the 'Bombay Calendar' (newspaper): it is not in Lloyd's Register and how long it lasted after 1833 is not known. Although the tonnage figure seems low for a vessel of the apparent size, there was no other ship of the name and the date and location given put the identification beyond doubt. However, the image may be a standard and replicated pattern to which the name has been added, rather than a realistic individual portrait. The diagrammatic representation of the sails shows practically the full complement possible, not what a ship is likely to have set even in calm weather.