Image: 'John Crawford, Nailing the Flag to the Main top gallant mast head, on board the Venerable, October 11th 1797' RMG PU3446f

Description: 'John Crawford, Nailing the Flag to the Main top gallant mast head, on board the Venerable, October 11th 1797' During the Battle of Camperdown in 1797 Admiral Duncan's blue squadronal flag was several times shot away from the main topmast of his flagship, 'Venerable'. When the topmast itself came down, one of his seamen, 'Jack' Crawford of Sunderland, went aloft and this time nailed the colours to the shattered stump, thereby establishing himself as a popular hero. Daniel Orme later sketched Crawford to include him in his oil of the Dutch admiral, De Winter, surrendering to Duncan (BHC3100). Orme also issued a portrait print in November 1797 (PAD3447), of which this is a non-identical later copy in reverse orientation. Orme's print also appears on transfer decorated jugs and similar commemorative pieces. His rendering and this one, show Crawford in his smart shore-going ' rig', not as he would have been dressed at the battle. Crawford eventually went back to Sunderland where he worked as a keelman and died in the 1831 cholera epidemic there, aged 56. A statue of him was later erected at Sunderland, where it can still be seen. 'John Crawford, Nailing the Flag to the Main top gallant mast head'
Title: 'John Crawford, Nailing the Flag to the Main top gallant mast head, on board the Venerable, October 11th 1797' RMG PU3446
Credit: http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/107597
Author: H. S. Kirby
Permission: The original artefact or artwork has been assessed as public domain by age, and faithful reproductions of the two dimensional work are also public domain. No permission is required for reuse for any purpose. The text of this image record has been derived from the Royal Museums Greenwich catalogue and image metadata. Individual data and facts such as date, author and title are not copyrightable, but reuse of longer descriptive text from the catalogue may not be considered fair use. Reuse of the text must be attributed to the "National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London" and a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 license may apply if not rewritten. Refer to Royal Museums Greenwich copyright.
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License: Public domain
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