Captain Sir Christopher Cole, R.N. K.C.B. Colonel of Marines, &c. &c. &c

A fine mezzotint portrait of Sir Christopher Cole, an important naval officer and significant as the patron of John Septimus Roe, Phillip Parker King's long-serving companion of the Mermaid and Bathurst voyages. A faint inscription at the lower left of the image notes that this is a proof copy.

Cole (1770-1837), Post Captain and Colonel of Marine, served as Flag Captain to Lord Hugh Seymour and to Sir J.T. Duckworth, relieved the garrison to Amboyna in 1810 and captured Banda Neira. He retired from the sea to represent Glamorganshire, and was made commander of the yacht Royal Sovereign in 1828. He had tremendous influence on the career of the great Australian cartographer and naval officer John Septimus Roe. Roe's first appointment was as the "schoolmaster" under Cole on board the Rippon, a vessel which saw service against the French. It was Cole who noticed Roe's skill at charts and drawing, and he soon had the young midshipman making detailed charts for the navy. Cole, together with Roe's other influential patron Sir Richard Keats, kept an eye out for Roe, and the two men were involved in organising first his appointment to the Admiralty under Captain Thomas Hurd, and soon after, his appointment to the Mermaid with Phillip Parker King. One of the first times that Roe was allowed to name something he had charted while sailing on the Australian coast he plumped for "Cole's Island".

The original painting of Cole was by William Owen R.A., and is here engraved by George H. Phillips. Owen had a prestigious career as a portraitist, and boasted a list of distinguished sitters. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1806.