Moortgat captures the beginning of the action of 22 May 1812, as the British Ship of the Line Northumberland
engaged and destroyed two French frigates, Ariane and Andromaque. During the later Napoleonic period, the Royal Navy had established so tight a blockade of France that few ships were ever able to venture into open water. Yet French vessels would still routinely try and evade British patrols with the hope of being able to prey on undefended merchant vessels in the Atlantic. Ariane and Andromaque were two such ships, returning from a voyage in which they had taken 36 merchantmen over the course of only four months. With the British alerted to their presence, the much larger warship Northumberland was sent to intercept them.
As the French ships approached the Breton coast, they sighted the large sails of Northumberland on the horizon. Opting to use their speed to negate the superior firepower of the British vessel, the French captain decided to try passing through dangerous shallows, trusting a subordinate who knew the local waters well to navigate them to safety. However, as they were passing Northumberland the first exchange of fire killed the unfortunate navigator – resulting in Andromaque and then Ariane successively running aground in the now-unknown waters. It is this initial action which Moortgat captures in his work. After firing a few more broadsides to ensure she had incapacitated the French ships, Northumberland retreated to deeper waters to ensure the same fate. While smaller support vessels tried to save the frigates, fires onboard both ships meant that both ships would explode during the night. The destruction of two frigates for minimal losses was considered a great success, and helped ensure that British shipping went unmolested.
After her celebrated action, Northumberland was perhaps best known for transporting Napoleon I to his exile on St Helena in 1815. After the Emperor’s flight from Waterloo his ship was quickly intercepted by Bellerophon in the channel, at which point he finally surrendered. While Bellerophon would normally have been afforded the honour of carrying this illustrious prisoner it was quickly decided that age presented too great of a risk, Napoleon was therefore handed over to Northumberland. There survives to this day a drawing by a crewmember, Denzil Ibbetson, of the Emperor aboard Northumberland as he left France for the final time.