A portrait of the East Indiaman ‘Triton’ off the coast of China. She is shown broadside-on under full sail. A small local junk is shown in the foreground with several figures looking up at the ship. The Chinese coast can be seen in the background.

For two hundred years East Indiamen carried trade between Britain and her increasingly important Indian possessions. Ships such as the ‘Triton’ were often luxuriously fitted out and much more commodious than Royal Navy ships.

The painting is signed and dated ‘W.J. Huggins 1839’.