Mid 19th c engraving of Admiral Josias Rowley in original burr walnut frame

Admiral Sir Josias Rowley, 1st Baronet, GCB, GCMG (1765 – 10 January 1842), known as "The Sweeper of the Seas", was an Anglo-Irish naval officer who commanded the campaign that captured the French Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mauritius in 1810.

This mid 19th century engraving is after the 1832-1833 portrait of Rowley by Andrew Morton. The Admiral  holds a telescope in the crook of his right arm and his left hand rests on a rocky outcrop. Josiah Rowley probably first went to sea in the ‘Suffolk’ in December 1778 under the command of his uncle, Sir Joshua Rowley. He was a midshipman in the ‘Alexander’ in 1780 and in the ‘Agamemnon’ the follow year. He was promoted lieutenant on 24 December 1783; to command the ‘Lark’, 16 guns, on 14 March 1794; and captain on 6 April 1795. He was appointed to the ‘Braave’ (ex-Dutch, 40 guns) at the Cape in April and to the ‘Impérieuse’, 38 guns, in January 1799, returning from duties in the East Indies in June 1802. He commissioned the 64-gun ‘Raisonnable’ in April 1805 and saw action off Cape Finisterre on 22 July that year. He then joined Sir Home Riggs Popham in South America. He was then employed on operations in the Indian Ocean, notably in Mauritius, and in the Mediterranean, where commanded the ‘America’, 74 guns, until October 1814. He was made a baronet on 4 December 1813, promoted rear-admiral on 4 June 1814, and made KCB on 2 January 1815. In 1815 he was briefly in the Mediterranean with his flag in the 98-gun ‘Impregnable’. Between 1818 and 1821 Rowley was commander-in-chief on the coast of Ireland. He was made vice-admiral on 27 May 1825 and was commander-in- chief in the Mediterranean from December 1833 to February 1837.

In the original good quality burr walnut frame with very small veneer losses in two places.

Measuring: 67 cm x 54cm x 4cm

c. 1840