Description
This album covers Edward Gennys Fanshawe's Baltic service in command of HMS 'Cossack' during the Crimean War, August 1854 - August 1855, and his brief transfer to the 'Hastings' in the Baltic and latterly at Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland, 1855-56, though on her return to England in late 1855 he was invalided ashore until rejoining the ship at Queenstown in January 1856. It also covers his command of the 'Centurion' in the Mediterranean from May 1856 to June 1858, when he was again invalided home. Also included are holiday drawings made in Scotland in 1843 and 1883, Switzerland in 1877 and 1880, and a single drawing of Moulmein, Burma, made in 1846 during his Eastern posting as Commander in the 'Cruizer', 1844-46.
No. 27 in Fanshawe's Baltic and later album, 1843 - 83. Captioned by the artist on the album page below the image, as title. The view is taken from south of Vesuvius, here seen fuming with volcanic vapours streaming roughly westward. Naples is much further into the far left, on the north-west side of the bay. Fanshawe was at this time in poor shape from a rheumatic left hip, though still commanding the 'Centurion' and helped by having his wife with him on board when at sea, by dispensation of Admiral Lord Lyons, the Mediterranean commander-in-chief. On 22 May he wrote to his father that 'by the advice of the doctors to renew my health and strength by change of scene and air', they were leaving Malta that afternoon on a French steamer for Naples, and intending to be back in Malta on 9 June. 'I hope to be able to be a great deal in the open air, driving about to the spots most worth seeing; and also that we shall pass three or four days at Castellamare and Sorrento..' (Fanshawe [1904], p 366). This is the only drawing preserved from the Neapolitan visit in this album.
Image Licence
CC BY-NC-ND
Image Credit
© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Location
Gulf of Naples, Naples, Italy
Country
Italy
Medium
Watercolour
Tags
Category
Landscapes & Seascapes
