English: 'The Launch' [ of the 'Britannia' ]; illustration to Falconer's 'The Shipwreck' (1811 ed., frontis.)
The first of a series of ten drawings, of which the collection holds nine (PAF5913–PAF5921). The printed description of the plate based on it, probably written by Pocock, reads: 'The Britannia is here represented as just freed from the Blocks and Shores, and gently sliding off the Stocks into the River [Thames]. The background – Scenery near Deptford, with Boats and Figures appropriate'. 'The Shipwreck' (1762) is an epic poem by William Falconer (1732–70), whose professional life from his youth was that of a merchant seaman, and briefly a naval midshipman. Eventually he became a naval purser, in which role he was able to concentrate on literary pursuits, including writing an important nautical dictionary, first published in 1769. He probably died in early January 1770 when the East Indiaman 'Aurora' , in which he had embarked with the prospect of becoming clerk to a trade mission it was carrying, vanished with all hands in the Mozambique Channel, Madagascar. Much of 'The Shipwreck' is autobiographical – including Falconer's earlier escape from drowning in 1749 off Sunion (Cape Colonna), Greece, as second mate of a merchantman wrecked there. The poem's authenticity made it popular with those who knew the sea, as well as other readers of the Romantic period, and it went through many editions. Those of 1804 and 1811 were illustrated by Pocock, who also seems to have acted as nautical consultant on the latter. The British Museum holds his drawings for the 1804 edition, the NMM holds nine of the ten drawings for the 1811 edition, in which the plates carried detailed descriptions (as above). The nautical accuracy of these inscriptions suggests Pocock also largely wrote them. The missing drawing is the second from the series, showing Anna by moonlight near her father's house, with her suitor, Palemon, going to take the boat out to the ship: Falconer's name for himself in the poem is Arion. In 1810 Pocock exhibited all the drawings for the 1811 edition at the 'Old' Water Colour Society, of which he was a founder member in 1804. A later owner was a man called John Coryton, whose name appears on the backs of some of the drawings with the dates 1860 or 1862. All have been damaged by past exposure to light, which is dramatically clear in cases where framing mounts have protected the edges. Their original colouration is better indicated in a set of anonymous early copies taken from six of them, with four after other artists for other editions: those after Pocock are PAJ1639 (copying this one) and 1640, PAJ1643–PAJ1645, and PAJ1648. This drawing is signed and dated by Pocock on the barge bow, lower left. Exhibited: NMM Pocock exhib. (1975) no. 34.