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Oswald Walters Brierly(British, 1817-1894)The Bombardment of Acre, 3rd. November 1840
£1,200 - £1,800
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Find your local specialistOswald Walters Brierly (British, 1817-1894)
signed 'O.W.Brierly' (lower left)
pen, ink and watercolour
37.5 x 64.3cm (14 3/4 x 25 1/4in).
Footnotes
Provenance:
Admiral Sir George Broke [later Broke-Middleton] (1812-87), who joined the Navy in 1825 and who was First Lieutenant of the 18-gun brig-sloop ‘Wasp’ during the Syrian campaign of 1840. Although ‘Wasp’ does not figure either in this view, the picture was undoubtedly a poignant reminder of the young officer’s service at this memorable event.
In 1839, after a decade of unrest in the Middle East, the Great Powers [Britain, Austria, France and Russia] agreed to help Turkey recover her province of Syria which had been effectively independent since an insurrection there in 1831. Once matters had been formalised by the signing of the Treaty of London in July 1840, the allies assembled an expeditionary force which achieved significant successes during September and October, followed by the naval bombardment and consequent fall of the coastal fortress of Acre on 3rd November. This was carried out by a combined Anglo-Austrian fleet which included ships-of-the-line as well as several of the new paddle frigates recently built for the Royal Navy. Apart from the obvious success of the bombardment, the event proved more notable for the fact that it was the very first occasion on which steam-powered ships were used in action, naval warfare being fundamentally changed thereafter.
This particular view, even though it does not include any of those paddle vessels, nevertheless shows clearly how the sailing ships of the fleet were anchored in line to make them more stable and thus more effective firing platforms.