Lot 122: James Fulton Pringle (British, 1789-1847)

H.M. frigate "Phoenix" leaving St. Helena
signed
oil on canvas
77.4 x 123.2 cm. (30 1/2 x 481/2 in.)

The "Phoenix" is depicted leaving St. Helena with Jamestown clearly visible off her stern, Phoenix would have made this visit circa 1790 in the last years of peace before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793.

The 36 gun frigate was launched on 15th July 1783 and with the American War of Independance effectively over it was seven years before her active service began. Her first action was off Mangalore, on the west coast of India, where she had taken the French "Resolue" in a skirmish on 19th November 1791. During the French Revolutionary Wars she was responsible for the capture of several enemy ships including the Dutch frigate "Argo" on 12th May 1796 and more famously on the 10th August 1805 the capture of of the French 44-gun frigate "Didon" off Cape Finisterre.

The "Phoenix" was lost in a violent storm off Smyrna in the Aegean on 20th February 1816.