HMS Euryalus In Chinese Seas

A China Trade portrait painted in Hong Kong around 1862.

Within a 'Chinese Chippendale' carved and lacquered wood frame.

o.s: 27.5 in x 22.25 in

Provenance: The Parker Gallery, 2 Albemarle Street London W.1

HMS Euryalus. Built at Chatham Dockyard in 1853; decommissioned in 1865; a Royal Navy fourth rate wooden-hulled screw frigate. At the time this portrait was painted, during her final decade, she carried 35 guns plus some 16 carronades.

Euryalus arrived at Yokohama on 15 September 1862, the day after the Namamugi Incident in which a samurai assault on British nationals on the outskirts of the treaty port led to a major breakdown in Anglo-Japanese relations. In an effort to enforce reparations from the Satsuma Domain, Euryalus, as Admiral Sir Augustus Kuper's flagship, took part in the bombardment of Kagoshima, August 1863. During this action the Captain of Euryalus, John James Steven Josling was killed, along with his second-in-command, Commander Edward Wilmot; both being decapitated by the same cannonball. Eight other members of the crew also died in this action, their names all commemorated on a memorial in the former British Consulate building in Yokohama.

As Admiral Kuper’s flagship The Euryalus was again employed at the bombardment of Shimonoseki in 1864, under the command of Captain John Hobhouse Inglis Alexander. The Captain was severely wounded in the ankle as he led an assault against onshore batteries.

As Euryalus's Captain of the Afterguard, Thomas Pride, was awarded a Victoria Cross for his actions during one of the stormings at Shimonoseki and it was at Shimonoseki that Duncan Gordon Boyes won his Victoria Cross at the age of just 17.