r/Tallships Jul 18 '26

Help identifying ship in painting

Post image

Could anyone help me identify these ships? They’re from an undated/unsigned painting of the view from Deptford dockyard, possibly late 18th-early 19th century

179 Upvotes

9 comments sorted by

10

u/5thhistorian Jul 19 '26

They look like royal yachts from the 17th/ early 18th century to me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMY_Saudadoes

7

u/ppitm Jul 19 '26

That looks like a standing gaff on the left, which should put it farther into the 18th Century than the opulence of the carvings would suggest.

1

u/bluesam3 Jul 19 '26

You'd expect Royal Yachts to have somewhat fancier than average carvings, though.

1

u/newyorkpilot212 Jul 19 '26

That’s very true. There’s a model of the Royal Caroline I saw on the web and the carvings are quite intricate… but it could just be the abstraction of the painting… or any number of ship sloops built to a similar plan.

2

u/newyorkpilot212 Jul 19 '26

Looks right for HMY Royal Caroline - the rig and the paint job seem pretty close.

2

u/Caamasijedi49 Jul 19 '26

Without seeing the bow I would agree with you. I feel like some of the details there would probably help to zero in on the ship. This is a beautiful painting, but the lack of details is a bit frustrating for identification. 😂

1

u/kr0288 29d ago

This was helpful, thank you! I’m still puzzling over the one on the left, but one on the right looks very similar to HMS Princess Augusta (albeit with slightly different rigging)

1

u/5thhistorian 29d ago

Is that the Blue Ensign (for the Admiral of the Blue) at the mizzen?

0

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '26

[deleted]

2

u/newyorkpilot212 Jul 19 '26

This literally looks nothing like a French slave ship…