While another work by Dinsdale, Action off Belfast Lough, involves a British ship called the HMS Brilliant , Chase of the Brilliant involves that ship’s successor built in 1779. She saw action in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. This particular scene takes place on July 26, 1798. Two French frigates, the Vertu and the Régénérée, are sailing from the Canary Islands to Rochefort, on France’s western coast, when they are intercepted by the Brilliant . The French give chase, pursuing the British ship just off the island of Tenerife. The Brilliant was able to evade the French guns, while the Vertu and Régénérée eventually returned to Tenerife.