(Updated, August 2023) This painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1792 as 'His Majesty's ship Victory sailing from Spithead with a division from a grand fleet'. It is at present the earliest known painting featuring the ship (which came into active service in 1778) as its main subject. One or two others earlier are recorded but not now located. 'Victory' is shown in the centre foreground, in port broadside view, under full sail and flying the red ensign and the flag of Vice-Admiral of the Red at the fore.

While the event represented was long unclear, it probably represents the 'grand fleet' of 36 ships that was assembled in Spithead in the summer of 1791 with the intention of sailing to the Baltic in the European political crisis known as the Russian Armament. In this Britain initially supported its ally, Prussia, under the Triple Alliance (with the Dutch) of 1788 against the expansionist policy that Catherine the Great of Russia was mainly directing at the Ottoman empire. In July, however, Britain backed down to the detriment of the Ottomans and disappointment of the Prussians: the alliance collapsed and the fleet - by then under command of Admiral Lord Hood, Vice-Admiral of the Blue in the 'Victory' - dispersed from Spithead by the end of August.

On 2 July 'The Times' reported that there would be no formal naval review (by George III) that year on grounds of expense but that the King, Queen and four elder princesses, and the Duke of Clarence (later William IV), would go to Portsmouth to view the fleet on the 22nd unless political circumstances required it to sail before then. HRH the Duke of Gloucester, and Prince William of Gloucester, had then already headed a large formal party to view and visit it on 1 July. The King's visit appears to have been quietly dropped before the political matter resolved on 26 July, and despite such a possibility continuing to be mentioned into August.

This left Dodd, who may have painted the picture speculatively, with the issue of titling it for a sailing that did not in fact take place, or under a Vice-Admiral of the Blue. Whether he originally painted the flag colours shown as blue or red has not yet been determined, but after the picture was shown at the Royal Academy in early 1792 it was published - under the same title - by T. Simpson as a large aquatint print on 1 August that year (see PAJ2246) to make the most of it commercially.

The same plate was reissued by John P. Thompson on 1 January 1806 (PAH6248), but this time retitled as 'His Majesty's Ship Victory under Sail from Portsmouth to the Downs with the Corpse of the Immortal Nelson'. This occurred on 11 December 1805, following Nelson's death at Trafalgar in October, and is a good example of opportunist recycling of an earlier image to capitalize on a later event. In this second printing the Union flags were not updated to the post-1801 pattern, which suggests that Dodd may not have been involved in the reissue.

Spithead is the sheet of water between the north-eastern shore of the Isle of Wight and the English mainland. It forms a deep, sheltered channel leading into Portsmouth Harbour and provides the main naval anchorage outside the harbour for assembling fleets to sail, and for reviews. A number of visitor-guide plans were published identyfying the disposition of the fleet while it lay in Spithead: see PAF4193 for an example and other notes on them. Dodd was an English marine painter, engraver and ship portraitist who was a prolific recorder of naval actions in the American and French Revolutionary Wars. The painting is signed and dated 'R.Dodd 1791' on the stern of the boat in the foreground.