Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

The British tar at Omoa

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William Humphrey

The British tar at Omoa

[London] : Pubd Jany 1. 1780 by W. H Strand, [1780].
etching
image: 231 x 344 mm; plate mark: 253 x 355 mm; sheet: 264 x 369 mm
Peel 2328
Notes
Title from item.
Satire on the storming of the fort of Omoa in the Bay of Honduras by British sea and land forces on 16 October 1779.
Provenance

Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.

Summary

Print shows a British sailor who has just entered the fortifications via a ladder at left, up which two more soldiers with fixed bayonets are climbing. He holds a cutlass in each hand, offering one to a Spanish officer who is unarmed and incompletely dressed, wearing a nightcap, one leg being bare, and his stocking ungartered. The sailor says "Damn your Eyes, Don, take your Choice!"; the Spaniard answers "Ah Misericordia Segnor Inglese! me beg to be excused". In the foreground British troops with fixed bayonets advance towards Spaniards who flee in disorder, holding up their hands in alarm. The Spanish flag has been hauled down, and is under the feet of the British sailor; above it flies the Union Jack. A British ship, at left, is firing at the fort.

Associated names
Humphrey, William, approximately 1740-approximately 1810, publisher.
Peel, Robert, 1788-1850, former owner.
Classification
Department