Pocock enjoyed a successful career as an artist in Bristol and then London, carving out a niche for himself as a painter of ships and sea battles. He admired the Dutch marine painter Willem Van de Velde, and the President of the Royal Academy Sir Joshua Reynolds encouraged him to seek out other artists, especially Claude Joseph Vernet. Pocock learnt how to make sophisticated but accurate compositions from Vernet's ability to unite landscape with nautical painting. He was commissioned to paint two large views of the Battle of the Saints of 9-12 April 1782 with the shipbuilder James Martin Hilhouse. This was one of the key battles of the American War of Independence, in which Britain, led by Admiral Sir George Rodney (later Lord), fought off the invasion of its colony Jamaica by France, led by Comte de Grasse. The victory helped to secure Britain's Caribbean interests during the peace negotiations of 1783. Known in France as the Battle of Dominica, the name Saints comes from the group of islands between Dominica and Guadeloupe where the fighting took place. The Close of the Battle of the Saints (around 1782, K4965), combine Pocock's painterly skills and Hilhouse's naval engineering knowledge. The Close...depicts the French defeat, with the Ville de Paris surrendering in the centre, its sails unmanageable, while the Glorieux is shown dismasted in the foreground. Pocock managed to compose what must have been a chaotic scene into one in which the viewer can clearly read the action.