'A Centinel on the Pallas's gangway, Jany 1775' (Bray album) RMG PT2005

'A Centinel on the Pallas's gangway, Jany 1775' [Bray album]
No. 30 of 74 (PAJ1976 - PAJ2049)
A drawing signed 'AVprGB' (to the life by Gabriel Bray) on the backing paper showing a fully uniformed Marine on sentry duty while the 'Pallas' was en route to Africa, probably at Tenerife from the date. A cutter is on the horizon to the left.
It is one of 73 drawings by Bray (plus one signed 'NF 1782') preserved in a 19th-century album. They have now been separately remounted. Bray (1750-1823), was second lieutenant of the 44-gun ‘Pallas’ under Captain the Hon. William Cornwallis (1744-1819) – later a well-known admiral - on two voyages (1774-77) to report on British interests in West Africa, including the slave trade. The dated drawings refer only to the first of these, from December 1774 to September 1775, though a few may be from the second. Others comprise country views, some of Deal, Kent (where Bray may have come from), and others of social-history interest.

A Centinel on the Pallas's gangway