An armed merchantman in three positions in the Channel off Dover

'Nobody contributed more to recording the naval side of the French Revolutionary Wars than Thomas Whitcombe.' (E.H.H. Archibald, The Dictionary of Sea Painters of Europe and America, 2000, p. 233) Whitcombe's depiction of ships implies a specific knowledge of life at sea, although he probably spent most of his career in London. Testimony to Whitcombe's skill as a maritime artist was his selection by James Jenkins to create the paintings for the 50 splendid plates in Jenkins's 1817 publication The Naval Achievements of Great Britain.