From the Tagus to the Amazon river
the sloops of war by Manuel Vicente Nunes (1711-c.1775)
Abstract
Among the hundreds of illustrations produced during the famous “Philosophical Journey” of the naturalist Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira, by the captaincies of Grão-Pará, Rio Negro, Mato Grosso and Cuiabá, between 1783 and 1792, are some drawings of several vessels, made by Joaquim José Codina, which constitute an extraordinary and unprecedented historical document. In these, the most important are the ones representing the sloop of war Nossa Senhora do Bom Sucesso built in 1775 at Pará’s shipyard, after a Manuel Vicente Nunes’ model, thus constituting, to date, the only known, contemporaneous and documented proven example of the work of this important shipbuilder.