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A half-length portrait facing left in rear-admiral's undress uniform, 1795–1812, with the St Vincent medal and the star of a Knight of the Bath. The empty right sleeve is pinned across with the upper part slit and tied with ribbons to accommodate the wound dressing following the loss of Nelson's right arm at Santa Cruz, Tenerife, in July 1797.

This portrait is believed to be the first of many replicas made from the only oil sketch of Nelson that Abbott painted from life. At the time Nelson was painfully recovering from the loss of his arm and staying with his former captain William Locker, then Lieutenant-Governor of the Royal Hospital for Seamen, Greenwich. Nelson gave Abbott two sittings while at Greenwich, and from this he produced a sketch that he used as a pattern for as many as about forty portraits of him. The dating of this one is 1798, since Nelson’s KB was awarded on 27 September 1797 and the blue flag at the mizzen of the ship in the lower left corner denotes his rank as Rear-Admiral of the Blue.

The original portrait, engraved by Richard Earlom in 1798, was in the Abbott sale of 1804. It was owned by the painter Sir Francis Grant in 1874 and then by Lord Sandys and his descendants. This version was presented by Nelson to his prize-agent, Alexander Davison and bequeathed to Greenwich Hospital in 1873 by Davison’s grandson, Sir William Davison.