Adam Callander fl.1780-1811

H.M.S. Queen Charlotte was the first vessel of this name.  She was launched from Chatham dockyard in April 1790.  She carried a hundred guns and was the flagship of the Channel Fleet under the command of Admiral, Lord Howe.  The present work depicts the fleet on the point of departure from Spithead.  Howe set sail on 2^nd May, and went in search of the French fleet, supported by thirty-two ships of the line.  The French were sighted four hundred miles west of Ushant.  Howe pursued the French for two days, but was not able to engage the enemy until the first of June, in a battle which has become known as ‘The Glorious First of June’, or the ‘Third Battle of Ushant’.  Lord Howe won a decisive victory, and on the 24^th June King George III presented him with a diamond-hilted sword.  He was made a Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1797.

Adam Callander was a Scottish painter.  He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1780-1811, and at the British Institution 1806-1811.  A signed and dated marine painting of Shipping off Madras by Callander hangs in the National Maritime Museum.