File:The ship Delaford RMG BHC3283.tiff

Ship portrait. Oil painting of the ship Delaford, in port-broadside view, between two other vessels. Delaford is identified by name on the pennant she flies at her mainmast. She appears to be the only ship of that name in 'Lloyd's Register' at the time this could have been painted and had an extraordinarily long career.

She was built on the Thames in 1788 and registered at 393 tons for trade between London and the West Indies: she later worked to the Mediterranean and was eventually re-registered at Cork, with the same destinations. For some years before 1818 her tonnage was given as 370, and thereafter as 420 until her last appearance in the Register for 1838-39. For her last few years, when she was registered as 'E.1' and clearly showing her age, no details of her registered voyage appears. While the name of her builder is also not given by Lloyd's, the fact that the picture is in the Green Collection suggests it may have been their precursor John Perry, at Blackwall, or that the ship had some other connection with Green's, though they never owned her. The only suspicious aspect of this identification are the lines of the ship, with a bow more of 19th than 18th-century profile.

The ship on the left appears to be a frigate or smaller warship, calling for a pilot who is coming out in a cutter in the distance, though the 'Delaford' is shown hove-to as if waiting for one as well. The vessel on the right is another merchantman and the scene appears to be in the Thames estuary off the North Foreland, with Margate to the right.

Huggins (1781-1845), a London-based marine painter, was very well known for such ship portraits for masters and owners. It is likely that this picture is from the 1820s or '30s.