Lot 25: H.M.S. "Blossom" leaving Spithead, May 19 t h 1825 -- a vignette

William Smyth (1800-1877)
H.M.S. "Blossom" leaving Spithead, May 19th 1825 -- a vignette
inscribed as titled
watercolour on paper
oval
7¾ x 10in. (19.7 x 25.4cm.)

Smyth was a Royal Naval officer and artist who entered the Navy in April 1813. He served as a passed midshipman and mate on the Blossom under Frederick Beechey in the Pacific, 1825-28, until commissioned lieutenant on the voyage in May 1827. Nine of his watercolours illustrate Beechey's official account.

The Blossom crossed the Pacific to the Bering Strait and Beechey established a base at Kotzebue Sound, intending to greet Franklin and Parry on their arrival via the Northwest Passage. Beechey carried out surveys of the Pacific northwest and visited California, Tahiti and Pitcairn Island where Adams, the last survivor of the Bounty mutineers, came off to the ship. The latter's account of the mutiny is included in Beechey's narrative.