Seamen painting a jolly boat (Bray album) RMG PT1984

Seamen painting a jolly boat [Bray album]
No. 9 of 74 (PAJ1976 - PAJ2049)
A drawing signed 'AdVprGB July 74' (to the life by Gabriel Bray) showing two men working on a jolly boat (the smallest boat warships generally carried), which has been propped up on its starboard gunwale for convenience. Many of the Navy's boats were built at Deal in Kent, where it had a boatyard for the purpose and where Bray is thought to have come from. Since this is clearly a shore scene and Bray appears to have been in Kent at this time (see PAJ1983), that may be the location.
This 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, and others of social-history interest.

Seamen painting a jolly boat