Scene from the Sketchbook of James Weir, Captain of Marines, this scene is from a book when he was posted on HMS Audacious from 1795 to 1800. Some of the earliest watercolours in the book were produced when the Audacious was on patrol off the Portuguese coast in 1796. Weir painted watercolours in the months leading up to the Battle of the Nile, when the Audacious was part of Nelson's squadron searching for the French fleet off the Italian coast after it had escaped from Toulon. Views include Nelson's flagship, HMS Vanguard, anchored at Naples Bay for repairs in October 1798. Also views of Constantinople, the Portuguese coast, Syracuse and surrounding area, Catania and Mount Etna, the interior of the Temple of Concord, the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter Olympus, the Valley of Temples at Agrigento, the Temple of Venus at Baia, Mount Nuovo and Pozzoli near Naples, and the fleet at Palermo
James Weir
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