File:The Adams shipyard from the Isle of Dogs, with His Majesty’s new frigate Ambuscade ‘on the stocks’, dressed with flags and ready for launching September 1773, 1774.jpg

The Adams shipyard from the Isle of Dogs, with His Majesty’s new frigate Ambuscade ‘on the stocks’, dressed with flags and ready for launching September 1773, 1774

signed and dated 'Jn Cleveley Pix. 1774' (lower left)

LIVE AUCTION 17195, OLD MASTERS EVENING SALE, Sale Jul 4, 2019, Lot 52

PROVENANCE: Alan James Montagu-Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, 4th Earl of Wharncliffe (1935-1987); Sotheby's, London, 12 March 1986, lot 14 (£116,000). with Richard Green, London, from whom acquired by the late owners. EXHIBITED: London, Society of Artists, 1774, no. 46.

Lot Essay by Michael Naxton quote: Undoubtedly in consequence of the establishment of the Royal Dockyard at Deptford by Henry VIII in 1517, that same locality gradually became home to a number of private shipyards which, by the eighteenth century, occupied almost the entire southern bank of the Thames opposite the western shore of the Isle of Dogs. Amongst the numerous yards was one owned by Adams & Co., a short-lived independent concern opened in 1773 and which, after only six years, was absorbed into the much larger establishment of Mr. William Barnard. During its brief tenure of independence however, Adams built three ships for the Royal Navy, the first of which was H.M.S. Ambuscade, a name already associated with success due to the fame of her predecessor. The first vessel to bear that name was, in fact, a powerful 40-gun French frigate captured by H.M.S. Defiance in 1746 and assimilated into the Navy under her original name, a practice often used for enemy prizes. Sold out of the fleet in 1762, when the Seven Years’ War came to an end, the next vessel to carry the name was one of the three ‘Amazon’ class 38-gun frigates ordered for the Navy in 1770 when a war with Spain [over the ownership of the Falklands Islands] seemed likely. Designed by Sir John Williams, the order for the second Ambuscade went to Adams’ yard, in Grove Street, Deptford, and her keel was laid in April 1771. Launched on 17th September 1773 and completed on 1st October the same year, the threat of the Anglo-Spanish War had by then subsided, with the result that the new frigate was not actually required for active duty until three years later.