The Foundering of the 'Coronation' 90 Guns at Rame Head

The foundering of the English warship HMS Coronation in 1691 off Rame Head in Cornwall, with the loss of most of her crew, was a significant maritime disaster that attracted commemorative images on both sides of the North Sea. Bakhuizen's painting of the event reflects the Dutch interest in naval affairs beyond their own waters — the late seventeenth century was a period of intense Anglo-Dutch maritime rivalry and cooperation, and Dutch painters responded to notable incidents in English waters as well as their own. The Coronation, a second-rate ship of the line carrying ninety guns, capsized in a sudden squall in May 1691, and the disaster prompted lasting interest in the vulnerability of even the most powerful warships to weather. The Sir Max Aitken Museum, associated with the collection of the Canadian-British newspaper proprietor, held a significant body of maritime art and naval memorabilia, making this an appropriate institutional home for a naval disaster scene.

Bakhuizen rendered the stricken vessel in oil on canvas with particular attention to the angle of capsize — the hull's tilt against the horizon is the composition's primary visual argument. The surrounding sea is painted with urgency: short, choppy strokes of grey and green suggest a sea that has not yet resolved into the grand rolling waves of his calmer storm compositions. Distress signals and the chaotic rigging of a ship losing its fight with the water provide dense linear incident in the upper canvas.