He created a large number of small portrait drawings of the officers on board the ship.

Thetis was built at Nyholm to a design by Ernst Wilhelm Stibolt She was laid down on 19 August 1789 and the construction was completed on 19 May 1792.

Fisker had two missions: first, to escort the annual "gift ship" to Algiers, and second, to arrange for the freeing of two Danish vessels and their crews in Tripoli.

Thetis set sail from Copenhagen on 30 August, On 6–8 September, she fired warning shots at several Royal Navy ships in the North Sea.

Thorvaldsen and some of the officers spent the time touring the town, visiting some of its churches and coffee houses.

On 14 November, Fisker engaged in diplomatic, but unsuccessful, negotiations with the old Pasha of Tripoli, Yusuf Karamanli.

[7] Thorvaldsen created a number of miniature portrait drawings of the officers on board the Thetis en route to the Mediterranean in 1796.