Lot 39: John Christian Schetky (British, 1778-1874) 'Launching Day': a Royal Navy frigate ready for launching at Pembroke Dock

John Christian Schetky (British, 1778-1874)
'Launching Day': a Royal Navy frigate ready for launching at Pembroke Dock
indistictly insribed in pencil (verso)
watercolour with traces of pencil
24.5 x 36cm (9 5/8 x 14 1/8in).
Footnotes

The first ships built at Pembroke Dock for the Royal Navy were a pair of 20-gun frigates launched in 1816. Such was their success that more orders soon followed and many vessels, large and small, were subsequently built there throughout the whole of the nineteenth century. However, the absence of many of the usual ship-building facilities in this view suggests that this scene took place in the early years of the dockyard's existence.

We are grateful too Michael Naxton for his assistance with cataloguing this lot.