'Four Marines eating Pease on board the Pallas, Novr 74' (Bray album) RMG PT1993

'Four Marines eating Pease on board the Pallas, Novr 74' [Bray album]
No. 18 of 74 (PAJ1976 - PAJ2049)
A drawing of four marines signed 'AVprGB' (to the life by Gabriel Bray). It shows fully uniformed marines - probably a 'mess' of four - below an upper deck hatchway on the 'Pallas'. The two visibly eating are seated on sea chests and the meal could be pease pottage (or pudding) - a porridge of dried split peas baked with water and seasoning. The drawing was, however, probably made while the 'Pallas' was at Portsmouth.
This is one of 73 drawings by Bray (plus one signed 'NF 1782') preserved in a 19th-century album. They have now been separately remounted. Bray (1750-1823), was second lieutenant of the 44-gun ‘Pallas’ under Captain the Hon. William Cornwallis (1744-1819) – later a well-known admiral - on two voyages (1774-77) to report on British interests in West Africa, including the slave trade. The dated drawings refer only to the first of these, from December 1774 to September 1775, though a few may be from the second. Others comprise country views, some of Deal, Kent (where Bray may have come from), and others of social-history interest.

Four Marines eating Pease on board the Pallas, Novr 74