This rare subject matter in dramatic form is one of the early 19th century’s celebratory artforms of the British pirate folk legend of Wilwatch. Some take the form of song, and celebrate the man “will watch” while stories and depictions make note of the pirate ship of a similar name with diverse spellings. The romance of the 17th & 18th century pirate legends had taken hold of the British populace, and the more depraved acts had begun to be forgotten, whereas the report of fresh atrocities where beginning to surface again in the far east and west Indies sailing trades. Britains longed for the gentlemen outlaws of the early days whom look and spoke like their sailing men, rather than losses far from home oceans away.

No matter the specifics of the subject’s origin, the art work is absolutely by a member of the Buttersworth family. Thomas is known to have painted the scene in several incarnations, and it is known that in the late 1820s and 1830s his son James painted many interpretations of the father’s works. We whole heartedly agree that this work is one of those examples, where James has kept with his own artistic styling and has tightened the detail and composition to show the pirate firing on and being fired at by a ship of the British royal navy’s red squadron. Most noticeable is the trademark sky break with the nocturnal moon casting illumination down on the ships, very much the device of James.