Little is known of this artist except that he exhibited at the Society of Artists between 1761 and 1783. This picture shows an encounter between the French and English fleet during the American Revolutionary War (1775-83), soon after the French had openly joined the American side in 1778. On the 17 July 1778 two French ships, spotted reconnoitering the British fleet, were asked to surrender to Admiral Keppel. The Captain of ‘La Belle Poule’ refused and engaged all night with Captain Marshall on the frigate ‘Arethusa’. The artist here shows this duel as a spectral encounter between two blood-red vessels in a scene lit only by moon and cannon-light. The 'Arethusa', on the left, can be distinguished only by the red ensign she flies. It looks as if Swaine has made a study of the sublime light effects in the landscapes of Joseph Wright of Derby during the 1770s, especially his depictions of the eruptions of Vesuvius.