Captain Hugh Palliser.

Repro ID: BHC2928

Description: A full-length portrait of Sir Hugh Palliser, Admiral of the White, turning slightly to the right in captain's, uniform, 1767-74. He stands cross-legged, leaning on the plinth of a column, holding his hat in his right hand. The background includes a ship at sea. From 1764-66, when he was a Captain, Palliser was Governor of Newfoundland, where Cook, who had served under him earlier, was employed charting the coast. He was subsequently Comptroller of the Navy and then, second-in-command to Augustus Keppel at the Battle of Ushant in 1778. His conduct there and a subsequent court martial over the issue of whether he had failed to obey his chief's signals for support, divided the Navy at a time of great national peril, and resulted in the refusal of some of the best flag officers to serve. His charges against Keppel were judged to have been ill-founded, and Palliser was burnt in effigy by a mob and his London house was gutted. Thanks to his patron, the Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty until the fall of Lord North's ministry in 1782, Palliser was appointed Governor of Greenwich Hospital in that year. This painting, attributed to George Dance, is copied from an original three-quarter length portrait by Nathaniel Dance and was given to Greenwich Hospital.

Creator: George Dance

Date: before 1775

Credit line: National Maritime Museum, London, Greenwich Hospital Collection