File:Admiral Sir Charles Napier (1786-1860) RMG BHC2875.tiff

A full length portrait of Napier standing on rocks, with a fortress in the distance on the left. He is wearing a frock coat, white waistcoat and trousers. Instead of captain’s rings on the sleeves the frock coat has three buttons and epaulettes. His cocked hat is worn transversely, and has two buttons on the strap. He gestures towards the fortress with his right arm and holds his dress sword with undress slings in his left. When in command of the ‘Recruit’ off Guadeloupe in 1809 he was largely responsible for the capture of the French ship ‘Hautpoult’. This so impressed his admiral that Napier was given command of her under her new name ‘Abercromby’. From 1811-15 he commanded frigates on the west coast of Italy and the south of France with great success. By 1827 he had lost most of his fortune in speculation and again sought employment at sea, initially in command of the ‘Galatea’. By 1833 he was a vice-admiral and major-general in the Portuguese navy of Maria II, while she was trying to force the throne from her uncle Don Miguel. Using the ‘nom de guerre’ of Dom Carlos de Ponza, Napier defeated the navy of Don Miguel off Cape St Vincent, followed shortly afterwards by the capture of Lisbon and victory for the young queen Maria. In 1839 he was back in the British navy in the Mediterranean fighting the Egyptians under the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir Robert Stopford. Napier returned to a seat in Parliament, had brief command of the Channel fleet and engaged in an acrimonious dispute with the Admiralty who would not give him the Mediterranean command. In 1854 he commanded the Baltic fleet fitted out against Russia, and although he succeeded in blockading their ports, he effected little else. This fell so far short of public expectations that he was not given the command again the following season. The portrait is signed and dated ‘T.M.Joy 1847’.