Text below the image reads "Plate 1, Dedicated by permission the right honorable the lord commissioners of the admiralty. Situation of His Majesty ship Java, Captain Lambert, at 5 min past 3 P.M. after hours of close and sever action with American Frigate Constitution, in which she was so much disabled in her masts, sails and rigging, by the enemy’s very superior force and weight of metal that in the attempt to board with every prospect of success her foremast fell and she was render totally inoperable."