The fierce spirit of battle is captured with extraordinary drama and detail in this oil on canvas by accomplished marine painter Montague Dawson. The historic action took place on May 6, 1801, off the Catalan coast between the Spanish El Gamo and the British Speedy, a far smaller vessel in size, crew and firepower. Despite the disparity, Speedy won the day, making the ship and its captain legends of British naval history. The present work masterfully captures this naval action; it is Dawson's large-scale battle scenes such as this that are considered his very best works. With his incomparable eye for detail, he deftly portrays the drama of the fight.

The 14-gun HMS Speedy commanded by Lord Cochrane engaged the 32-gun frigate El Gamo early in the day, initially raising U.S. colors so the Spanish Captain, Don Francisco de Torres, would hold fire. This delay allowed Cochrane to draw in close, at which point he raised his true, British colors. El Gamo opened fire, but being so much larger her guns’ trajectory was too high, meaning the shot simply passed through the Speedy’s rigging, causing relatively little damage. Cochrane split his remaining crew — a mere 54 crewmen to the Spanish's 300 — into two boarding parties. One party engaged the Spanish, while the others cut down El Gamos colors. The Spanish sailors took this as a sign of their officer's surrender and laid down their arms. This remarkable victory provided inspiration to novelist Patrick O’Brian, whose character, Jack Aubrey, was based on Cochrane, engages in a similar battle in his novel Master and Commander.

In The Heroic Speedy and Gamo, Dawson is able to express the fury of the battle through a masterful composition that enhances the drama of the fight. The son of a keen yachtsman and grandson of marine painter Henry Dawson, Montague Dawson spent much of his childhood on the Southampton Water, where he was able to indulge his interest in the study of ships. Naturally gifted at drawing and painting, the self-taught Dawson became a member of an art studio group in Bedford Row, London. By the age of 15, he was working on posters and illustrations to earn a living. For a brief period around 1910, Dawson worked for a commercial art studio in London, but with the outbreak of World War I, he joined the Royal Navy. Dawson was present at the final surrender of the German Grand Fleet, and many of his illustrations depicting the event were published in The Sphere.

After the War, Dawson established himself as a professional marine artist, concentrating on historical subjects and portraits of deep-water sailing ships. During the Second World War, he was employed as a war artist and again worked for The Sphere. Dawson exhibited regularly at the Royal Society of Marine Artists and the Royal Academy from 1917 to 1936. By the 1930s, he was considered the greatest living marine painter. His patrons included two American Presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson, as well as the British Royal Family.