It depicts a coastal view of the naval action of the Great Siege of Gibraltar, part of the European theatre of the American Revolutionary War.

The Spanish Empire's infamous floating batteries lie crippled and aflame in the background, while the shoreward waters are choked with surrendering Spaniards.

[5] Designed to fire on Gibraltar at close quarters with deadly accuracy, floating batteries were built of 1 metre (3 ft)-wide timbers packed with layers of wet sand, and were considered fire-proof and unsinkable.

[5] American-born John Singleton Copley was commissioned by the City of London in 1783 to depict the victory of the Great Siege which had been won a few months earlier.

[2] It depicts the Governor General George Augustus Eliott, riding to the edge of the battlements to direct the rescue of the defeated Spanish sailors by the British.