Manning the pumps

This work, one of seven executed by the artist in 1931 and all illustrating the harshness of life at sea during the era of commercial sail, shows some of Briscoe's typical 'men in motion' as they toil at the ship's pumps in foul weather. With the pumps themselves situated on the wettest part of the open decks and frequently awash in heavy seas, the task required a fair degree of stoicism quite apart from the necessary physical strength needed to 'man the pumps' for the duration of a lengthy storm. In his catalogue raisonné, Alex Hurst notes the absence of oilskins on the men depicted and concludes that they were simply omitted as Briscoe would have realised that in a picture "where muscular effort was required", their inclusion would have ruined the effect.