File:An American Ship in Distress RMG BHC1210 (cropped).tiff

Although it was painted five years earlier, this may possibly be the work exhibited by Whichelo at the Royal Academy in 1816 with the title, 'The packet and an American ship coming into Margate in a storm with pilot boats going out to the relief of a ship in distress'. Alternatively it could be an early version of the same subject. It shows an American ship in the centre, perilously close to the shore. Her fore-topgallant mast has snapped off and though her sails have been partly taken in she appears dangerously over-canvassed for her situation, as she runs in before a easterly gale. She is also flying the American flag upside-down to indicate that she is in distress. Crossing hazardously close under her bows is a small cutter, heading into harbour on the port tack. This is the 'packet' of the 1816 title, one of the regular passenger smacks which served Margate from London. Its name, 'DUKE OF KENT', is inscribed on the mainsail, which was a fairly common feature of such vessels. A number of small boats are in the water on the far left. In the foreground a small two-masted pilot lugger with five men on board is shown pitching in the stormy sea, as her men hoist sail. A figure at the stern, almost certainly the pilot, points and appears to be issuing instructions. The jetty is crowded with watching figures and several other ships are visible in the distance on the right. These include one apparently aground on one of the Thames estuary shoals off Margate, where ships were fairly often wrecked. The sky is heavily laden with clouds and rain falls on the right. The lighter part of the sky highlights features on the cutter, in the manner of 17th-century Dutch storm scenes. Margate was on the route for ocean-going ships making for London and the painting presumably records a contemporary incident, though not one of which other record has yet been found. The artist may also have used the subject to hint at another reading, since the date of the work is the year before President James Madison declared war on Britain (1812-14). This brief conflict arose over tensions from British high-handedness in searching foreign ships and impressing non-British seamen, including American citizens, to prevent neutrals profiting from trade with Napoleonic France, then under British blockade.

The artist, best known as a watercolourist, was a pupil of John Varley and became a marine painter, landscapist and London topographer. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1810 when he was described as 'Marine and Landscape Painter to HRH the Prince Regent'. The year of this painting, 1811, was a significant date for the Prince Regent too since it was just after his assumption of the Regency for his father, George III. The work is signed 'C J M Whichelo 1811', bottom right.