The ships' names listed above have been taken from a relatively modern label attached to the reverse of the painting's frame. It is difficult to see how the vessels can be so positively identified without the contemporary evidence of an inscription by the artist although the work certainly portrays a group of ships quite likely to have been lying in Portsmouth in the early 1790's just prior to the war with Revolutionary France.
Courageux, Bellona and Bedford were all 74-gun third-rates, arguably the backbone of the fleet; Lion was a so-called "small' third-rate mounting only 60 guns whilst St. George and Prince George were both large second-rates mounting 98 and 90 guns respectively. Most survived the Napoleonic Wars although Courageux was lost off Gibraltar on 18 December 1796 and St. George was wrecked on the coast of Jutland on 24 December 1811.