Dominic Serres R.A. (1722-1793) H.M.S. Lowestoffe in Kingston Harbour with Port Royal

Dominic Serres R.A. (1722-1793)

H.M.S. Lowestoffe in Kingston Harbour with Port Royal, Jamaica beyond, with attendant schooners, one almost certain to be the Little Lucy, the first command of Lieutenant Horatio Nelson; A Brig and other boats at anchor off the coast in Jamaica

A pair, both signed and dated 1779

Both oil on canvas

Each 33.5 x 47cm; 13¼ x 18½in (2)

Provenance:

Captain William Locker, who probably commissioned the pictures from Dominic Serres as they were friends

By family descent to the present owner

William Locker (1732-1800) joined the Royal Navy in 1746 during the War of the Austrian Succession. As a lieutenant in the frigate Sapphire, he distinguished himself under Lord Hawke at the ferocious battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759. Appointed post captain in 1768, he was given command of the frigate Lowestoffe following the outbreak of war with America, sailing to Jamaica in 1777. With Lowestoffe went the newly-qualified eighteen year old Lieutenant Horatio Nelson with whom, despite difference in rank and age, Locker developed a remarkable and lasting friendship. Locker took a keen and paternal interest in Nelson's subsequent rise to fame whilst Nelson derived patronage, tactical knowledge of close action, experience and encouragement from the senior officer. Locker even gave Nelson his first command appointing him captain of the schooner Little Lucy, an American prize re-fitted as Lowestoffe's tender. For some weeks, the two ships worked in tandem hunting prizes in the waters of the Caribbean. In July 1778 Nelson was transferred to HMS Bristol whilst Locker, his health poor, returned to England where, in 1793, he was appointed governor of Greenwich Hospital. On his death, Nelson, now feted as the victor of the Nile, commented of his ‛?sea daddy' that ‛?[Locker] has left us a character for honour and honesty which none can surpass and very few attain'.