Battles at Sea, 1815 to 1945

Navarino in 1827, painted by an officer who watched it from the deck. The Kearsarge sinking the Alabama off Cherbourg, painted by Manet from the press reports. The Monitor and the Merrimac, Lissa, Admiral Tōgō on the bridge of the Mikasa at Tsushima, Jutland, and the war artists of the Second World War: the Jervis Bay, the Bismarck, the Ohio in the Malta convoy.

This chapter of Ships in Paintings holds 87 works. For each one you will find the artist and, wherever the records allow, the date and where the original is kept; then what the ship brings to the picture, and the real ship behind it when there is one. See all 1,331 works on one page.

Marea can build any of these ships as a scale model, with the maximum detail the scale permits, finished to be inspected. We can build her as the artist saw her: the same rig, the same sails set, the same colours. It isn’t a copy of a painting. It’s the ship, stepping out of it.

This database was put together by Ai Refloat™, Marea’s own artificial intelligence, from the records of museums, maritime archives and published sources. Ai Refloat is still young & like any teenager, it can be a little volatile and unpredictable at times, but above all, it is learning fast. So this list may well contain mistakes and we welcome the input of everyone who knows these paintings, photographs and ships better than we do: listening, correcting and learning is one of the many ways we work towards perfection in this craft.

When no free image of a work exists, we show instead the museum or the place where the original can be seen.

Have you spotted a mistake? Tell us which painting, photograph or ship, and we will amend it accordingly. Tell us here

The works

Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Lord Exmouth's Anglo-Dutch squadron Unnamed
Bombardment of Algiers, 1820
Artist Thomas Luny (1759 to 1837)
Where to see it Private collection
Medium Oil on canvas
Luny painted the Algiers bombardment four years after the event as a night piece. Exmouth's ships stand in the middle ground attacking the shore defences, the port itself hidden in billowing smoke, and the only light in the picture comes from a towering fire near the centre, behind the fleet. The chiaroscuro turns a punitive naval action into a drama of flame and darkness in which British victory is plainly close.
The vessels On 27 August 1816 an Anglo-Dutch squadron under Lord Exmouth bombarded Algiers to end the Dey's enslavement of Christian captives. The Dey accepted terms and a treaty signed on 24 September 1816 freed more than 1,000 slaves.
Sources Wikipedia
Image: Thomas Luny, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
The allied fleet and the Ottoman and Egyptian fleet in Navarino Bay Unnamed
The Battle of Navarino, 20 October 1827 (Bataille de Navarin), 1827 to 1830
Artist Ambroise-Louis Garneray (1783 to 1857)
Where to see it Musée de l'Histoire de France, Château de Versailles (MV 1795)
Medium Oil on canvas
Garneray, the former corsair who in 1817 became painter to the Grand Admiral of France and the first official painter of the Navy, recorded Navarino within a few years of the event. On 20 October 1827 British, French and Russian squadrons under Admiral Codrington destroyed the Ottoman and Egyptian fleet in the bay of Navarino, on the west coast of the Peloponnese. The battle came about more by accident than design, and it saved the young Greek state. It was the last major naval battle in history fought entirely with sailing ships, most of them at anchor.
The vessels At Navarino on 20 October 1827 an allied force of British, French and Russian warships destroyed an Ottoman armada that included squadrons from Egypt, Algiers and Tunis. The allied victory was won through superior firepower and gunnery.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Ambroise-Louis Garneray, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Asia and the allied fleet Named ship
The Battle of Navarino, 20 October 1827, 1828
Artist George Philip Reinagle (1802 to 1835)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0623)
Medium Oil on canvas
Reinagle was an eyewitness: he accompanied Codrington's squadron and watched the battle from the deck of HMS Mosquito. His canvas crowds Navarino Bay with the British, French and Russian ships that, on 20 October 1827, virtually destroyed the Turkish and Egyptian fleet in four hours of fighting. The French Breslau fires into an enemy's bow, the Albion is in action with a double-banked frigate, Codrington's flagship Asia engages two flagships at once, and a Turkish frigate blows up in the smoke. It was probably the picture shown at the Royal Academy in 1829, a record of what the museum calls the last fleet action under sail.
“The Allies did not lose any ships and this battle marked the last fleet action fought under sail.”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Asia, 82 guns, was Codrington's flagship at Navarino, where the allied fleet had been sent to enforce the Treaty of London during the Greek War of Independence. A Turkish ship opened fire, and the Turkish and Egyptian fleet was virtually destroyed without the loss of a single allied ship.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
Image: George Philip Reinagle, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Asia Named ship
The Battle of Navarino, 20 October 1827, 1828
Artist Thomas Luny (1759 to 1837)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0622)
Medium Oil on canvas
Luny never saw Navarino. His picture is believed to follow one of a set of four lithographs connected with the large canvas by George Philip Reinagle, who was present at the action. It shows the battle at its height: Codrington's flagship Asia, anchor down and men in her rigging, in close action with the Egyptian admiral's flagship, the shattered Turkish flagship burning on the left, and in the foreground an Egyptian boat with men in the water and a broken mast afloat. He signed and dated it on a floating spar, as if the name itself were debris of the battle.
“the virtual destruction of the Turkish fleet”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Asia (1824), 82 guns, was the flagship of Vice Admiral Sir Edward Codrington at Navarino on 20 October 1827, where the four-hour battle ended in the virtual destruction of the Turkish fleet without the loss of an allied ship. It was the last fleet action fought under sail.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
The British fleet off Algiers Unnamed
The British Fleet Forming a Line off Algiers, 1829
Artist Robert Salmon (1775 to after 1845)
Where to see it Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Medium Oil on canvas
Robert Salmon, English-born, arrived in Boston in August 1828 and soon began a series of three large paintings on the bombardment of Algiers in 1816. His own inventory records this one as number 630, the first of 1829, begun on the first of January and finished on the thirtieth. The museum notes he chose the subject with care, since the United States had fought its own wars with the Barbary States. Rather than the fire and smoke of the bombardment, he shows the moment before: the British fleet forming its line off Algiers.
“the British fleet forming the line in the vicinity of Algears”
Robert Salmon, as recorded by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The vessels Pellew's squadron of 1816, with the Queen Charlotte as flagship and a small Dutch force in company, bombarded Algiers on 27 August 1816 and freed 1,083 Christian slaves and the British consul.
Sources MFA Boston · Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: Robert Salmon, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
The allied and Ottoman fleets at Navarino Unnamed
The Battle of Navarino (La Bataille de Navarin), c. 1830
Artist Ambroise-Louis Garneray (1783 to 1857)
Where to see it Musée d'art et d'histoire de Narbonne (855.6.1)
Medium Oil on canvas
The old corsair Garneray, who had sailed under Surcouf and spent eight years in British prison hulks, painted Navarino within a few years of the battle, which helped the cause of Greek independence. The subject let him paint a crowded anchorage with dozens of ships fighting at close range, since at Navarino most ships fought at anchor. Unlike his pictures of the old wars with Britain, here British and French fought side by side, with Russia, against the Ottoman and Egyptian fleet.
The vessels The Battle of Navarino, 20 October 1827, destroyed the Ottoman and Egyptian fleet in the bay of Navarino (Pylos) in the western Peloponnese during the Greek War of Independence.
Sources Wikipedia · Wikidata
Image: Ambroise-Louis Garneray, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Queen Charlotte, HMS Impregnable and HMS Minden Named ship
The Bombardment of Algiers, 27 August 1816, 1836
Artist George Chambers the Elder (1803 to 1840)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0617)
Medium Oil on canvas
In August 1816 Sir Edward Pellew's squadron, joined by a small Dutch force, arrived off Algiers to demand the release of the detained British consul and more than a thousand Christian slaves. When no reply came, the fleet opened fire. Chambers, who went to Plymouth to sketch men-of-war for this commission, fills the foreground with boats, one with a howitzer in her bow and others rescuing men from the water, while the Minden fires her broadside and the Queen Charlotte engages the harbour batteries, engulfed in flame, with Algiers rising up the hills behind the smoke. It was painted for the Naval Gallery at Greenwich Hospital and shown at the British Institution in 1837.
“the fleet bombarded Algiers in the most spectacular of several similar punitive actions of this period”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Queen Charlotte, 100 guns, flew Pellew's flag at Algiers, with the Impregnable, 98, and Minden, 74, in the line. The action freed 1,083 Christian slaves and the British consul, forced restitution and peace between Algiers and the Dutch, and Pellew was raised to a viscountcy as Lord Exmouth.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: George Chambers the Elder, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
The allied fleet and the wrecked Ottoman armada in Navarino Bay Unnamed
The Evening of the Battle of Navarino, 1827 (Le soir de la bataille de Navarin), 1840
Artist Auguste Mayer (1805 to 1890)
Where to see it Musée national de la Marine, Paris (9 OA 16)
Medium Oil on canvas
Mayer chose not the fight but its aftermath: evening over Navarino Bay on 20 October 1827, when a British, French and Russian squadron had destroyed the Ottoman and Egyptian fleet. Codrington had taken the fateful decision to enter the bay and anchor face to face with the Ottoman fleet, and the battle that followed made Greek independence much more likely. It was the last major naval battle fought entirely with sailing ships, which gives the smoke-hung dusk of Mayer's picture an elegiac air.
The vessels At Navarino most ships fought at anchor. The allied commander-in-chief was Sir Edward Codrington, with Henri de Rigny leading the French; the Ottoman armada included squadrons from Egypt, Algiers and Tunis.
Sources Wikipedia · Wikidata
Image: Auguste Mayer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Print
Nemesis Named ship
The Hon. E.I. Co. Iron Steam Ship Nemesis Destroying the Chinese War Junks in Anson's Bay, 7 January 1841, 1843
Artist Edward Duncan (1803 to 1882)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (PAH8192)
Medium Aquatint and etching
On 7 January 1841, during the First Opium War, the East India Company's iron steamer Nemesis, commanded by William Hutcheon Hall, went into Anson's Bay near Chuenpee with the boats of Sulphur, Calliope, Larne and Starling and destroyed a fleet of Chinese war junks. Duncan's print, published in 1843 from his own oil painting, sets Nemesis broadside in the right background while a junk blows apart in the middle distance and men cling to wreckage all around. It is an uncomfortable image now, but a telling one: a ship built as the first fully iron warship, turning an old-style fleet to wreckage.
“built experimentally as the first fully iron warship”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Nemesis, launched in 1839, was the first British ocean-going iron warship, built by John Laird at Birkenhead for the East India Company and serving with its Bombay Marine in the First Opium War of 1839 to 1842. On 7 January 1841 she and ships' boats destroyed Chinese war junks in Anson's Bay, near the forts guarding the Pearl River.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
Image: Edward Duncan, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Azov Named ship
The Battle of Navarino, 1846
Artist Ivan Aivazovsky (1817 to 1900)
Where to see it Higher Naval Engineering School, St Petersburg
Medium Oil on canvas
Aivazovsky puts the Russian flagship Azov at the heart of Navarino, heavily damaged yet carrying the fight to the chief Turkish ship as her crew board it. The choice was loaded with meaning for a Russian audience: aboard Azov that day, under Captain Mikhail Lazarev, served the young Nakhimov, Kornilov and Istomin, future admirals. The ship took 153 hits and suffered the heaviest losses in the Russian squadron, and was honoured with the St George ensign. The composition leaves no doubt about the outcome, and makes one battered ship the image of a victory.
The real ship Azov was a 74-gun ship of the line launched at Arkhangelsk in June 1826. At Navarino she was hit 153 times and lost 24 sailors killed, the highest losses among the Russian ships. She was awarded a St George ensign in March 1828, condemned in the autumn of 1830 and broken up in 1831.
Sources museumsworld.ru · Wikipedia
Image: Ivan Aivazovsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Mercury (Merkurii) Named ship
The Brig Mercury after Defeating Two Turkish Ships Meets the Russian Squadron, 1848
Artist Ivan Aivazovsky (1817 to 1900)
Where to see it State Russian Museum, St Petersburg (Zh 2209)
Medium Oil on canvas
This is the quiet sequel to the fight. Aivazovsky, then painter to the Main Naval Staff, shows the last moment of the Mercury's ordeal of 14 May 1829: the brig under full sail and holed by enemy shot, running down to rejoin a group of Russian ships after beating off the Selimiye and Real Bey. Instead of smoke and battle there is only a small ship coming home to the fleet in the evening light, which makes her survival feel all the more improbable.
The real ship Mercury was a Sevastopol-built brig launched in 1820 to patrol the Caucasus coast. Under Captain-Lieutenant Alexander Kazarsky she beat off two Ottoman ships of the line mounting 184 guns between them on 14 May 1829. She was broken up in 1857.
Sources rusmuseumvrm.ru · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, where the original is kept. Photo: Andrey Korzun, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Nakhimov's Black Sea squadron and the burning Ottoman fleet Unnamed
The Battle of Sinop, 18 November 1853 (Night after the Battle)
Artist Ivan Aivazovsky (1817 to 1900)
Where to see it Central Naval Museum, St Petersburg
Medium Oil on canvas
Aivazovsky painted Sinop in the same year as the battle, a canvas more than three metres wide, and chose not the cannonade but the night that followed it. Smoke, fire and wreckage fill the harbour where the Ottoman squadron has been destroyed. At Sinop Nakhimov's ships, armed with the new explosive shell guns, set the wooden Ottoman ships ablaze, and only one steamer escaped. The victory gave Russia control of the Black Sea, and the painter lets the fire and the darkness carry the weight of it.
The vessels Nakhimov's squadron of six ships of the line, two frigates and three steamers destroyed the Ottoman squadron at Sinop, losing no ships; only the steam frigate Taif escaped. It was the first sea battle in which Paixhans shell guns were used.
Sources ivanaivazovsky.arthive.com · Wikipedia · ar.culture.ru
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the Central Naval Museum, St Petersburg, where the original is kept. Photo: A.Savin, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Print
HMS Albion, HMS Queen, HMS Firebrand and HMS Vesuvius with the allied fleets Named ship
The Bombardment of Sebastopol by the Combined Fleets, Oct. 17th 1854, 1855
Artist Edward Wolfe Brooker (active 1850s), published by Day and Son and others
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (PAH8244)
Medium Tinted lithograph
On 17 October 1854 the British and French fleets stood in to bombard the forts of Sevastopol. Brooker was aboard HMS Spitfire, and his print, published the following March, crams in at least twenty-three vessels, from ships of the line to paddle steamers, all pouring fire at a target half lost in smoke. Firebrand is in the foreground, seen from astern, beside the 90-gun Albion on the left; the Queen is near the centre with the paddle steamer Vesuvius alongside, and the arcs of shells are traced across the sky.
“At least twenty-three separate vessels, ranging from ships of the line to paddles steamers”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Albion (1842), 90 guns, and Queen (1839) were British ships of the line, and Firebrand (1842) and Vesuvius (1839) steamers, all in the Anglo-French attack on the Sevastopol forts on 17 October 1854 during the Crimean War.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Duke of Wellington and the Anglo-French Baltic fleet Named ship
The Bombardment of Sveaborg, 9 August 1855
Artist John Wilson Carmichael (1799 to 1868)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0636)
Medium Oil on canvas
The Crimean War was fought in the Baltic too, and Carmichael spent three months there in 1855 drawing the campaign for the Illustrated London News. His Sveaborg is seen from behind the line of attack: the great ships, Duke of Wellington among them, anchored in deep water while steam frigates and a line of mortar boats do the work, the sky dotted with bursts and smoke rings from the mortars. In the foreground men in open boats and on the rocks wave their hats and cheer, and the rigging of the big ships is crowded with sailors. The museum notes drily that the effect on the war was negligible.
“the effect on the course of the war against Russia was negligible”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Duke of Wellington carried Rear Admiral Richard Dundas, commanding the British ships of the Anglo-French Baltic fleet. At Sveaborg, the fortress guarding the approach to St Petersburg and to Helsinki, the fleet anchored out of range of the old guns and began shelling on 9 August 1855, damaging the dockyard, ships and stores.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
Image: John Wilson Carmichael, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Nakhimov's squadron at Sinop Unnamed
The Battle of Sinop, 18 November 1853, 1860
Artist Alexey Bogolyubov (1824 to 1896)
Where to see it Central Naval Museum, St Petersburg
Medium Oil on canvas
At Sinop on the Black Sea coast, Vice Admiral Pavel Nakhimov led his squadron into the Ottoman anchorage so fast that the shore batteries could not stop it, and his flagship opened fire at 400 metres from the Ottoman flagship. Over four hours the Turks lost around fifteen ships; only the steam frigate Taif escaped. Bogolyubov's canvas records what the Central Naval Museum calls the last major battle of the age of sail. It was also the first sea battle fought with explosive shell guns, which set the wooden Ottoman ships on fire and pushed navies towards the ironclad.
“It was the last major battle of the Age of Sail.”
Central Naval Museum label (Artefact guide)
The vessels Nakhimov's flagship Imperatritsa Maria, built at Nikolaev and launched on 9 May 1853, was the last sail-powered ship of the line built for the Russian Navy and carried eight 68-pounder Paixhans shell guns. At Sinop she fired 2,128 rounds and took 60 hits. Trapped at Sevastopol, she was scuttled in 1855 to block the harbour.
Sources ar.culture.ru · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the Central Naval Museum, St Petersburg, where the original is kept. Photo: A.Savin, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Savannah and USS Perry Named ship
Capture of the Savannah by the U.S.S. Perry, 1861
Artist Fritz Müller (1814 to 1861 or after)
Where to see it National Gallery of Art, Washington (1967.20.2)
Medium Oil on canvas
On 2 June 1861 the schooner Savannah became the first privateer to leave Charleston harbour for the Confederacy. She soon chased another sail and discovered too late that it was the armed brig USS Perry. Her captain, Harrison Baker, surrendered his lightly armed ship, and the capture of Savannah led to court cases that did much to define the nature of the war. The painting shows the little schooner in the foreground under the Confederate Stars and Bars, her crew on deck, while the square-rigged Perry follows behind under the Union flag: a naive ship portrait of a short adventure.
The real ship Savannah was a small Charleston schooner commissioned as a Confederate privateer and captured by the US Navy brig Perry in June 1861, soon after leaving port.
Sources Wikipedia · Wikidata
Image: Fritz Müller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Print
USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (ex-Merrimack) Named ship
Terrific Engagement between the "Monitor" 2 Guns, and "Merrimac" 10 Guns, in Hampton Roads, March 9th, 1862: The First Fight Between Ironclad Ships of War, 1862
Artist Frances Flora Bond Palmer (1812 to 1876), for Currier and Ives
Where to see it Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (63.550.40)
Medium Hand-coloured lithograph
Fanny Palmer drew this version of the Hampton Roads duel for Currier and Ives in 1862, the year of the battle. The guns are counted in the title, two against ten, and the little Monitor, her round turret and the Stars and Stripes in the foreground, trades fire with the Confederate ironclad across the choppy water of the roads. The caption beneath claims more than the battle gave: in truth the two ironclads fought for about three hours and neither could do the other serious harm.
“In which the Merrimac was crippled, and the whole Rebel Fleet driven back to Norfolk.”
Caption on the Currier and Ives print, 1862
The real ship On 9 March 1862 USS Monitor fought CSS Virginia, built on the remains of the burned steam frigate Merrimack, for about three hours in Hampton Roads, the first combat between ironclad warships. Neither could seriously damage the other and the duel ended indecisively.
Sources The Met · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where the original is kept. Photo: Arad, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Danish blockading squadron at the Battle of Jasmund Unnamed
The Action off Swinemünde, 17 March 1864 (Affæren ud for Svinemünde 17. marts 1864)
Artist Carl Frederik Sørensen (1818 to 1879)
Where to see it Museum of National History, Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerød
Medium Oil on canvas
Carl Frederik Sørensen painted this action in the year it was fought. On 17 March 1864 a Prussian squadron came out to attack the Danish ships blockading the coast off Rügen and met Edvard van Dockum's squadron: a screw frigate, a ship of the line and two steam corvettes. In an action lasting two hours the stronger Danish squadron forced the Prussians to withdraw, with damage and light casualties on both sides. It was a victory at sea in a war that Denmark lost on land, and Sørensen's canvas now hangs at Frederiksborg Castle.
The vessels At Jasmund the Danish squadron under van Dockum comprised one screw frigate, one ship of the line and two steam corvettes; the Prussian force under Eduard von Jachmann had a screw frigate, a screw corvette, a paddle steamer and six gunboats.
Sources Wikidata · Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Carl Frederik Sørensen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
CSS Alabama and USS Kearsarge Named ship
The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama, 1864
Artist Édouard Manet (1832 to 1883)
Where to see it Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Medium Oil on canvas
On 19 June 1864 spectators on the French coast watched the Union Kearsarge sink the Confederate raider Alabama off Cherbourg. Manet was not there. He built the picture from press descriptions and had it on show in Alfred Cadart's gallery in the rue de Richelieu 26 days later. He gave three quarters of the canvas to a foaming turquoise, blue and grey sea under a high horizon, so the sinking Alabama sits near the top, the victor barely visible beyond her smoke, while a French boat hurries to sailors clinging to wreckage and the English yacht Deerhound stands by. Barbey d'Aurevilly found the sea more frightening than the battle.
The real ship Alabama was built in secret by John Laird Sons and Company at Birkenhead, launched as Enrica on 15 May 1862 and commissioned as a Confederate cruiser on 24 August 1862 after fitting out in the Azores; under Raphael Semmes she captured or burned 65 Union merchant ships. The wreck was found off Cherbourg by the French minehunter Circé in 1984.
Sources Wikipedia
Image: Édouard Manet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
USS Kearsarge Named ship
The Kearsarge at Boulogne, 1864
Artist Édouard Manet (1832 to 1883)
Where to see it Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1999.442)
Medium Oil on canvas
A few weeks after her victory off Cherbourg, the Kearsarge anchored off Boulogne-sur-Mer in July 1864, the first American warship to do so, and Manet went to see her, perhaps even going aboard to study her profile. This time he painted the ship itself, set near the top of the canvas beyond a fishing boat running in before the wind, the picture built in broad horizontal bands of water and sky. Manet wrote that he painted her the way she looks at sea, and the colour is laid on rich and unmuted, with sharp contrasts of light and shade. It is a portrait of a famous warship at rest.
The real ship Kearsarge, a steam sloop of war of 1,550 tons, was launched at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, on 11 September 1861. Chain cable hung along her midsection as protection for her machinery was hit twice in the fight with the Alabama. She was wrecked on Roncador Reef on 2 February 1894.
Sources The Met · Wikipedia
Image: Édouard Manet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
H. L. Hunley Named ship
Submarine Torpedo Boat H. L. Hunley, Dec. 6, 1863, 1864
Artist Conrad Wise Chapman (1842 to 1910)
Where to see it American Civil War Museum, Richmond, Virginia
Medium Oil on panel
Chapman was a Confederate soldier who served at Charleston from September 1863 to March 1864, sketching its defences as part of General Beauregard's campaign for his harbour plans, and he finished the series from those sketches in Rome, where his family lived. Here the long iron Hunley rests on timber blocks on a sunlit Charleston wharf, watched by a sailor and a seated soldier with his rifle, in December 1863, between her second fatal sinking and her one attack. It is a portrait of a machine that had already killed thirteen of her own men and would, two months later, become the first combat submarine to sink a warship, and vanish with her crew.
The real ship Built at Mobile, Alabama and launched in July 1863, Hunley sank twice at Charleston in 1863, killing thirteen men including her inventor Horace Lawson Hunley. On 17 February 1864 she sank the sloop USS Housatonic and was lost with all eight of her crew; found in 1995 and raised in 2000, she is preserved in North Charleston.
Sources Wikipedia · Wikidata
Image: Conrad Wise Chapman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HDMS Jylland, Niels Juel and Hejmdal against SMS Schwarzenberg and Radetzky Named ship
The Naval Action off Heligoland, 9 May 1864 (Søtræfningen ved Helgoland 9. maj 1864), 1865
Artist Carl Neumann (1833 to 1891)
Medium Oil on canvas
Heligoland was the last naval battle fought by squadrons of wooden ships and the last major action of the Danish navy. On 9 May 1864 Commodore Suenson's frigates Niels Juel and Jylland and the corvette Hejmdal met Tegetthoff's Austrian frigates Schwarzenberg and Radetzky off the island, then British and neutral. The Austrian flagship caught fire three times and Tegetthoff sought shelter in neutral waters. Denmark claimed a victory, though the blockade had to be lifted. Carl Neumann drew the fight for the press in 1864 and the next year painted it twice, in two nearly identical canvases.
The real ship Jylland, built in 1860 as a wooden sailing frigate with an auxiliary screw, was badly damaged at Heligoland and is preserved as a museum ship at Ebeltoft, the last surviving wooden-hulled screw-driven warship. Schwarzenberg, Tegetthoff's flagship, caught fire three times in the battle.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Carl Neumann, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Re d'Italia and Tegetthoff's ironclads Named ship
The Sea Battle of Lissa, 1866 (Slaget ved Lissa), 1868
Artist Carl Frederik Sørensen (1818 to 1879)
Where to see it Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna
Medium Oil on canvas
A Danish marine painter whose pictures found buyers at the courts of St Petersburg, London and Athens, Sørensen signed this canvas in 1868, two years after the battle it records. At Lissa on 20 July 1866 the Austrian fleet under Tegetthoff defeated the Italians in the first battle in which ironclads were used on a major scale. The picture shows its decisive moment: the Austrian flagship Erzherzog Ferdinand Max ramming the Italian ironclad Re d'Italia, which rolled over and sank. It now hangs in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna.
The real ship Re d'Italia was an armoured frigate built by William H. Webb in New York, launched in 1863 and commissioned into the Italian navy in 1864. At Lissa, her rudder disabled, she was rammed by Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, rolled over and sank with some 400 of her crew.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Carl Frederik Sørensen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
SMS Kaiser Named ship
Ship of the Line SMS Kaiser at the Battle of Lissa (Linienschiff "SMS Kaiser" in der Schlacht bei Lissa), 1868
Artist Konstantinos Volanakis (c. 1837 to 1907)
Where to see it Belvedere, Vienna (Inv. 2758)
Medium Oil on canvas
Volanakis, the Cretan who kept the books for a Greek merchant family in Trieste and filled his ledgers with sketches of ships, was sent by them to study in Munich, and became one of the greatest Greek painters of the sea. He signed this canvas in 1868, two years after Lissa, and it was bought for the imperial picture gallery in Vienna in 1873. His subject is the Kaiser, the wooden ship of the line that at Lissa engaged several Italian ironclads at once, rammed the Re di Portogallo and damaged the Affondatore: the only wooden ship of the line to fight an ironclad in battle.
The real ship SMS Kaiser, a 92-gun ship, was built at Pola and launched in October 1858, the last wooden ship of the line and the only screw-driven one built by the Austrians. Flagship of Anton von Petz's division at Lissa, she was rebuilt as an ironclad casemate ship from 1869 to 1873, renamed Bellona as a barracks ship in 1901 to 1902, and seized by Italy after the First World War; her final fate is unknown.
Sources sammlung.belvedere.at · Wikipedia
Image: Konstantinos Volanakis, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Brazilian and Paraguayan steamers at Riachuelo Unnamed
Naval Battle of Riachuelo (Combate Naval do Riachuelo), 1872
Artist Victor Meirelles (1832 to 1903)
Where to see it Museu Histórico Nacional, Rio de Janeiro
Medium Oil on canvas
On 11 June 1865, on the river at Riachuelo, Admiral Barroso rallied his fleet with a signal borrowed from Nelson, Brazil expects that every man will do his duty, and then took his flagship, the steam frigate Amazonas, straight at the Paraguayan steamers, ramming the Paraguarí, the Marquez de Olinda and the Salto in turn. Victor Meirelles gave the battle a canvas of about four by eight metres, one of the largest works in Brazil's National Historical Museum, a scale fit for the victory that decided the river war.
The vessels Amazonas, a steam frigate, was Barroso's flagship at Riachuelo during the Paraguayan War. Her ramming attacks turned the battle: Paraguay lost four steamers and all its barges, Brazil only the Jequitinhonha.
Sources Google Arts & Culture · Wikipedia
Image: Victor Meirelles; photo Joalpe, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Rossiya Named ship
The Capture of the Turkish Steamer Mersina by the Steamer Rossiya, 13 December 1877 (Vzyatie parokhodom Rossiya turetskogo parokhoda Mersina), 1877
Artist Ivan Aivazovsky (1817 to 1900)
Where to see it Central Naval Museum, St Petersburg
Medium Oil on canvas
Aivazovsky painted this capture in the same year it happened. On 13 December 1877 the Rossiya, a mail and passenger steamer taken into the Black Sea Fleet and armed for cruising, intercepted the large Turkish military transport Mersina off the Anatolian coast. After a warning shot the Mersina tried to run, but Rossiya's powerful engines soon overhauled her, and after a second and third shot she stopped. A boarding party raised the St Andrew's flag on her mizzen above the Turkish colours, and the prize, with hundreds of soldiers aboard, was towed into Sevastopol the next day.
The real ship Built by A. Leslie and Co. at Newcastle and delivered in January 1872 to the Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company (ROPiT) as a three-deck mail and passenger steamer of 2,600 tons. Enrolled in the Black Sea Fleet in September 1877, armed at Nikolaev and commanded by N. M. Baranov, formerly of the Vesta.
Sources Wikipedia (RU) · Wikimedia Commons
Image: Ivan Aivazovsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Veliky Knyaz Konstantin and her mine launches Named ship
Mine Attack by the Launches of the Steamer Veliky Knyaz Konstantin on the Turkish Ironclad Assari Shevket in the Sukhum Roads, 1877 (Minnaya ataka katerov parokhoda Veliky Knyaz Konstantin turetskogo bronenostsa Assari Shevket na Sukhumskom reyde), 1877
Artist Ivan Aivazovsky (1817 to 1900)
Where to see it Central Naval Museum, St Petersburg
Medium Oil on canvas
On the night of 11 to 12 August 1877 an eclipse of the moon was expected over Sukhum, and Stepan Makarov chose it for a secret attack. His ship Veliky Knyaz Konstantin lowered her steam launches six miles offshore; one blew a gap in the boom and two others exploded their mines close alongside the Ottoman ironclad Assari Shevket. What the attack achieved was disputed: Russian reports spoke of a hole and three days of repairs, while Hobart Pasha, the Englishman serving as admiral in the Ottoman navy, wrote to The Times that the ship was undamaged. Aivazovsky painted it the same year.
The real ship Veliky Knyaz Konstantin was an iron passenger steamer of ROPiT, laid down at La Seyne near Toulon in 1857 and converted to Makarov's design to carry mine launches; her boats made the world's first successful torpedo attack in the war of 1877 to 1878. Asar i Şevket, a central-battery ironclad launched in France in 1868, was broken up in 1909.
Sources Wikipedia (RU) · Wikipedia
Image: Ivan Aivazovsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Erzherzog Ferdinand Max Named ship
Admiral Tegetthoff in the Naval Battle of Lissa I (Tegetthoff in der Seeschlacht bei Lissa I), 1878 to 1880
Artist Anton Romako (1832 to 1889)
Where to see it Belvedere, Vienna (5032)
Medium Oil on wood
Romako painted the moment before the Austrian flagship rammed and sank the Italian ironclad Re d'Italia at Lissa in 1866, and he turned the whole convention of the victory picture inside out. There is no sea, there are no flags and no burning ships, and the flagship itself is barely more than implied: only Tegetthoff standing unperturbed on the bridge amid billowing smoke and flying shrapnel, and the sailors keeping the ship on course. The picture met with utter incomprehension in its day. The Belvedere now celebrates its extraordinary modernity.
“extraordinary modernity and precise concentration on the decisive moment in the battle”
Belvedere, Vienna
The real ship Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, an ironclad frigate, carried Tegetthoff's flag at Lissa on 20 July 1866. After an Austrian shot tore away the rudder of Re d'Italia, Tegetthoff ordered his flagship to ram her at full speed.
Sources sammlung.belvedere.at · belvedere.at · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the Belvedere, Vienna, where the original is kept. Photo: Murdockcrc, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Numancia Named ship
The Bombardment of the Forts of El Callao, 2 May 1866 (Bombardeo de los fuertes de El Callao), second half of the 19th century
Artist Rafael Monleón (1843 to 1900)
Where to see it Museo Naval, Madrid
Medium Oil on canvas
Monleón studied painting in Valencia and sailed all over Europe as a merchant navy pilot before becoming painter, conservator and restorer at the Museo Naval in Madrid, and his experience at sea shows in his marine work. Here the Spanish squadron under Méndez Núñez bombards the forts of Callao on 2 May 1866, the final battle of the Chincha Islands war, with the armoured frigate Numancia at the centre of the canvas. Both sides claimed the day: Peruvian and American sources that the city was left without notable damage, Spanish accounts and French observers that almost all the shore guns were silenced.
The real ship Numancia, in commission from 1864 to 1912, fought at Callao and between 1864 and 1867 made the first circumnavigation of the world by an ironclad. She later served the Canton of Cartagena, was converted to a coast-defence ship in 1896 to 1898, and was wrecked in 1916 on her way to the breakers.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia (ES) · Wikipedia
Image: Rafael Monleón, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Huáscar Named ship
The Death of Arturo Prat on the Deck of the Huáscar (Muerte de Arturo Prat en la cubierta del Huáscar), c. 1880
Artist Thomas Somerscales (1842 to 1927)
Where to see it Escuela Naval Arturo Prat, Valparaíso
Medium Oil on canvas
Somerscales, the English teacher and sailor who is also counted a Chilean painter, sets us on the deck of the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar at the Battle of Iquique, 21 May 1879. Her armoured turret fills the right of the picture; beyond, the masts and rigging of the Chilean corvette Esmeralda rise through the smoke. When Admiral Grau rammed the Esmeralda, Captain Arturo Prat tried to board the enemy with a single companion, Petty Officer Juan de Dios Aldea, and was shot on the Peruvian deck. Somerscales paints him in that moment, sword in hand and arm raised, alone on the ship that became the stage of a national legend.
The real ship Huáscar was a Peruvian ironclad with an armoured turret. At Iquique on 21 May 1879, commanded by Miguel Grau, she rammed the Chilean corvette Esmeralda, whose captain Arturo Prat was killed boarding her.
Sources Wikipedia · Wikidata
Image: Thomas Somerscales, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Intibah Named ship
The Sinking of the Turkish Steamer Intibah by the Mine Launches of the Veliky Knyaz Konstantin, Batum, 14 January 1878, 1880
Artist Lev Lagorio (1826 to 1905)
Where to see it Central Naval Museum, St Petersburg
Medium Oil on canvas
On the night of 14 January 1878 the steam launches of Makarov's mine transport Veliky Knyaz Konstantin crept into the Batum roads and sank the Turkish steamer Intibah. The Konstantin's boats are credited with the world's first successful torpedo attack. Lagorio, a Feodosia-born marine painter who had sailed on the naval steam frigate Groziashchy in the summer of 1845, painted the scene in 1880; the canvas is now in the Central Naval Museum. It is a small, dark picture of a moment that changed naval warfare.
The real ship Veliky Knyaz Konstantin was a passenger steamer of ROPiT, built at La Seyne near Toulon and converted in 1877 to Stepan Makarov's design to carry mine launches. The Intibah was an Ottoman steamer sunk by her launches in the Batum roads.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia (RU)
Image: Lev Lagorio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Veliky Knyaz Konstantin Named ship
The Steamer Veliky Knyaz Konstantin Cuts Off a Turkish Ironclad Shelling Colonel Shelkovnikov's Detachment at the Gagra Gorge, 7 August 1877, 1880
Artist Lev Lagorio (1826 to 1905)
Medium Oil on canvas
Lagorio gives the Konstantin a portrait rather than a battle. On 4 August 1877 Colonel Shelkovnikov telegraphed that his detachment, marching into Abkhazia, could not pass the Gagra gorge because a Turkish ironclad lay offshore. The Veliky Knyaz Konstantin was sent, and on 7 August she drew the enemy ship away from the troops on the mountain road; using her speed, she led the ironclad after her for two hours while the detachment passed out of range of its guns. It was the prelude to Makarov's famous raids, a merchant ship turned warship working under the Caucasus mountains.
The real ship Built at La Seyne near Toulon under an 1857 contract for ROPiT, the iron passenger steamer Veliky Knyaz Konstantin was converted to Makarov's design to carry mine launches; her boats later made the world's first successful torpedo attack.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia (RU)
Image: Lev Lagorio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Mansur al liwa (Ottoman flagship) and Kanaris's fireship Named ship
The Burning of the Turkish Flagship by Kanaris, 1881
Artist Ivan Aivazovsky (1817 to 1900)
Where to see it National Gallery of Greece, Athens
Medium Oil on canvas
On the dark night of 18 June 1822, while the Ottoman fleet off Chios celebrated the Ramadan Bayram, Konstantinos Kanaris fixed his fireship firmly to the flagship Mansur al liwa, in reprisal for the massacre on Chios two months earlier. The fire reached the powder and the ship blew up; about two thousand men were killed or drowned, among them the Kapudan Pasha, Nasuhzade Ali Pasha. The deed made Kanaris a national hero. Aivazovsky painted it in 1881 on a large canvas, more than two metres wide, now in the National Gallery in Athens.
The real ship Mansur al liwa was an 84-gun Ottoman ship of the line, flagship of Kapudan Pasha Nasuhzade Ali Pasha; she was destroyed by Kanaris's fireship off Chios on the night of 18 June 1822.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Ivan Aivazovsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
USS Hartford Named ship
An August Morning with Farragut: The Battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864, 1883
Artist William Heysham Overend (1851 to 1898)
Where to see it Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford
Medium Oil on canvas
Overend puts us at the port taffrail of Farragut's flagship Hartford, looking back towards the wheel and quarterdeck, at the moment the Confederate ram Tennessee struck her a glancing blow on the port bow and the two ships ground past each other. Farragut stands on the quarter rail holding the rigging. The Englishman crossed to New York in 1882, interviewed survivors and enlisted the help of the admiral's son, and the canvas, three metres wide, is counted his greatest work. In 1886 the Hartford Courant campaigned to buy it for the Wadsworth Atheneum, fitting for the ship that bore the city's name.
The real ship Hartford, a wooden-hulled steam and sail ship, was Farragut's flagship at Mobile Bay, where his fleet forced its way past the forts protecting the bay and on 5 August 1864 the Confederate ironclad ram Tennessee tried to ram her.
Sources Wikipedia · connecticuthistory.org
Image: William Heysham Overend, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
SMS Schwarzenberg Named ship
The Battle of Heligoland, 1864: Schwarzenberg on Fire (Slaget ved Helgoland, "Schwarzenberg brænder"), 1889
Artist Carl Bille (1815 to 1898)
Where to see it Private collection (sold at Bruun Rasmussen, 2000)
Medium Oil on canvas
Twenty-five years after the battle, the Danish marine painter Carl Bille returned to its turning point. The Austrian flagship Schwarzenberg has caught fire and heads for the neutral waters of British Heligoland, with the Radetzky covering her; to the right the Danish squadron, Niels Juel, Jylland and Hejmdal. Schwarzenberg caught fire three times that day and the last fire forced Tegetthoff to break off. Denmark claimed a tactical victory, though the blockade of the German coast had to be ended. For Danes it remained the proud moment of a lost war.
The real ship Schwarzenberg was an Austrian steam frigate and Tegetthoff's flagship at Heligoland on 9 May 1864, where she bore the brunt of the Danish fire and caught fire three times before withdrawing to neutral waters.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Carl Bille, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Mercury (Merkurii) Named ship
Brig Mercury Attacked by Two Turkish Ships, 1892
Artist Ivan Aivazovsky (1817 to 1900)
Where to see it Aivazovsky National Art Gallery, Feodosia
Medium Oil on canvas
On 14 May 1829 the little brig Mercury, commanded by Alexander Kazarsky, was attacked by the Ottoman ships of the line Selimiye and Real Bey, whose guns outnumbered hers almost ten to one. Rather than strike, the crew fought, damaged the spars and rigging of both pursuers and got away. Aivazovsky said that prints of heroes fighting the Turks were the first pictures that kindled his passion for painting, and in 1892 he returned to this story on a canvas more than three metres wide: the brig fighting two great warships under a blue summer morning sky, on a choppy sea.
The real ship Mercury, a 20-gun brig armed with 18 carronades and 2 long guns, was laid down at Sevastopol in 1819 and launched in May 1820, a shallow-draught vessel with oars built to patrol the Caucasus coast. She was broken up in 1857.
Sources ar.culture.ru · Wikipedia
Image: Ivan Aivazovsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Print
The Japanese Combined Fleet and the Chinese Beiyang Fleet Unnamed
The Naval Battle and Capture of Haiyang Island (Kaiyōtō senryō kaisen no zu), 1894
Artist Ogata Gekkō (1859 to 1920)
Where to see it Art Institute of Chicago (1995.206.34)
Medium Colour woodblock print (three sheets of an ōban tetraptych)
On 17 September 1894, in the Yellow Sea off the mouth of the Yalu near Haiyang Island, the Japanese fleet under Admiral Itō, flying his flag in the cruiser Matsushima, met the Chinese Beiyang Fleet with its two ironclad battleships Dingyuan and Zhenyuan. It was the largest naval battle of the war and one of the Japanese navy's greatest victories. Ogata Gekkō gave it a four-sheet composition, of which Chicago holds three: a news picture of a young navy's triumph, made in the year of the battle.
The vessels At the Battle of the Yalu River the Imperial Japanese Navy defeated the Beiyang Fleet; the Japanese Flying Squadron sank the cruisers Zhiyuan and Jingyuan, and the Chinese ironclads Dingyuan and Zhenyuan survived the heaviest bombardment thanks to their armour.
Sources Art Institute of Chicago · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the Art Institute of Chicago, where the original is kept. Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Print
Naniwa, Yoshino and Akitsushima against Jiyuan, Kwang yi and the transport Kowshing Named ship
The Naval Battle of Pungdo in Korea (Chōsen Hōtō kaisen no zu), 1894
Artist Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847 to 1915)
Where to see it Art Institute of Chicago (1995.206.10)
Medium Colour woodblock print (two sheets from an ōban triptych)
The Sino-Japanese War at sea began on 25 July 1894 off Pungdo island in Korean waters, a week before war was declared. Rear Admiral Tsuboi's Flying Squadron, Yoshino, Naniwa and Akitsushima, opened fire on the cruiser Jiyuan and the gunboat Kwang yi, and the Jiyuan escaped only by running in among poorly charted shoals. Naniwa then stopped the British steamer Kowshing, chartered to carry 1,200 Chinese troops, and sank her. Kiyochika turned the opening shots of the war into a print for a public hungry for news.
The real ship Naniwa, Yoshino and Akitsushima were cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Flying Squadron. At Pungdo on 25 July 1894 they engaged the Chinese cruiser Jiyuan and torpedo gunboat Kwang yi, and Naniwa sank the chartered British transport Kowshing; war was formally declared on 1 August.
Sources Art Institute of Chicago · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the Art Institute of Chicago, where the original is kept. Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Print
Fukui Maru Named ship
Commander Hirose's Great Achievement (Kaigun chūsa Hirose kun no dai ikun), 1904
Artist Hirose Yoshikuni (active 1904 to 1905)
Where to see it Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2000.81a-c, Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection)
Medium Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and colour on paper, triptych
On the night of 26 March 1904 Lieutenant Commander Hirose Takeo, torpedo officer of the battleship Asahi, volunteered to take the old cargo ship Fukui Maru into the mouth of Port Arthur and sink her there to block the Russian fleet in. Hit by Russian artillery and a torpedo, she went down; Hirose, wounded, was killed while searching for survivors. Japan deified him as a war god, with a shrine in his home town of Taketa and a statue outside Manseibashi station in Tokyo, and printmakers pictured his sacrifice. This triptych is one of those memorials.
The real ship Fukui Maru was an old cargo vessel used as a blockship in the second, unsuccessful attempt to close the entrance to Port Arthur on the night of 26 March 1904. Hit by artillery and a torpedo from the Russian destroyer Silnyi, she sank; Hirose was posthumously promoted to commander.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Hirose Yoshikuni, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Print
Russian warships at Port Arthur under torpedo attack Unnamed
The Great Naval Battle at the Entrance to Port Arthur (Nichiro Ryojunkō daikaisen no zu), 1904
Artist Jinsai Rosetsu (active 1904)
Where to see it Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-P-2010-310-65)
Medium Colour woodblock print, triptych
The Rijksmuseum describes this triptych as the Japanese navy's surprise torpedo attack on the returning Russian ships in the harbour of Port Arthur on the night of 8 February 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War. Published by Katada Chōjirō and spread across three sheets, it turns the woodblock tradition to reporting a modern war at sea, with steel warships and torpedo craft in place of the sailing ships of older battle prints. Such triptychs were the news pictures of their day.
The vessels In the night torpedo attack that opened the war, Japanese destroyers hit the protected cruiser Pallada and the battleships Retvizan and Tsesarevich at Port Arthur; next morning Tōgō's battleships engaged the Russian squadron and shore batteries.
Sources Rijksmuseum · Wikipedia
Image: Jinsai Rosetsu, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Print
Russian Pacific Squadron and Tōgō's battleships Unnamed
The Great Naval Battle outside Port Arthur: Defeat of the Russian Fleet (Ryojunkō gai daikaisen shinzu sono ni: Rokoku kantai no haisen), 1904
Artist Kasai Torajirō (active 1904)
Where to see it Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Medium Colour lithograph
Prints like this were made for a Japanese public hungry for news of the war with Russia that opened at Port Arthur in February 1904. Across the sheet a line of Japanese battleships fires into a line of Russian battleships, while in the foreground a Russian battleship blows apart. It is not a record but a promise of victory: in the actual battle of 9 February several Russian ships were damaged by torpedoes and gunfire, but none blew up. The print shows what the public wished to see.
The vessels On the night of 8 to 9 February 1904 Japanese destroyers made a torpedo attack on the Russian Pacific Squadron at Port Arthur, hitting Pallada, Retvizan and Tsesarevich; next morning Tōgō's battleships engaged the Russian ships and shore batteries, damaging several before disengaging.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Kasai Torajirō, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Print
A Russian battleship as a patient's head Myth and legend
Human Figure with a Russian Battleship for a Head, Operated on by Japanese Surgeons (from the series Rokoku seibatsu shōwa: Defeat of Russia, Tales of Laughter), 1904
Artist Baidō Hōsai (Utagawa Kunisada III) (1848 to 1920)
Where to see it Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. (jpd.00941)
Medium Colour woodcut
Not every print of 1904 was heroic. In the comic series Defeat of Russia: Tales of Laughter the Russian fleet becomes a patient: a man whose head is a battleship lies on the operating table while grinning doctors and cooks gather round with dishes, as if for a feast. The joke plays on the damage done to Russia's warships at Port Arthur in the first months of the war. It is a glimpse of how Japanese printmakers laughed at the enemy, and of how completely the battleship had become a symbol of national power.
The legend An imaginary ship standing for the Russian Pacific Squadron, several of whose battleships and cruisers were damaged at Port Arthur in 1904.
Sources Library of Congress · Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia (JA)
Image: Baidō Hōsai, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Print
Fuji Named ship
Lieutenant Commander Yamanaka, Chief Gunner of Our Ship Fuji, Fights Fiercely in the Naval Battle at the Entrance to Port Arthur, 1904
Artist Migita Toshihide (1862 to 1925)
Where to see it Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2000.75a-c, Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection)
Medium Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and colour on paper, triptych
Toshihide, a designer of ukiyo-e war prints and painter in the Western style, here fixes on a single officer, the chief gunner of the battleship Fuji, fighting his guns at the mouth of Port Arthur. Fuji was really there: she fought in the Battle of Port Arthur on the second day of the war, 9 February 1904, when two shells hit her, killing two men and wounding ten. The print turns a steel warship into a stage for personal heroism, the way older prints staged the duels of samurai.
The real ship Fuji was the lead ship of her class of pre-dreadnought battleships, built for Japan by Thames Iron Works at Blackwall, London, and completed in 1897. She fought throughout the Russo-Japanese War, from the Battle of Port Arthur on its second day.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Migita Toshihide, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Print
Hayatori and Asagiri Named ship
The Second Attack on Port Arthur by the Hayatori and Asagiri (Yori dai ni Ryojun shōgeki Hayatori Asagiri yūsen zu), 1904
Artist Seisai (active 1904)
Where to see it Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-P-2010-310-61)
Medium Colour woodblock print, triptych
Two named Japanese warships, Hayatori and Asagiri, are the heroes of this triptych, which the Rijksmuseum describes as the second Japanese attack on the Russian fleet, on 11 February 1904, with the two ships sending Russian vessels to the bottom. Here the small, fast torpedo craft take the place of the great battleships, and the print celebrates the daring of their crews. It is a rare portrait of the little ships that did some of the most dangerous work of the war's opening days.
The real ship Hayatori and Asagiri were Imperial Japanese Navy warships that, according to the print and the Rijksmuseum, took part in the second attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur on 11 February 1904.
Sources Rijksmuseum · Wikipedia
Image: Seisai, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Print
A Russian battleship sinking at Port Arthur Unnamed
The Sinking of a Russian Battleship in the Naval Battle at Port Arthur (Rojun kaisen Rokan chinpō), 1904
Artist Gakyōjin (active 1904)
Where to see it Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-P-2010-310-70)
Medium Colour woodblock print, triptych
Issued as number seven of a pictorial report on the Russo-Japanese War, this triptych shows Russian sailors going down with their ship in the bay of Port Arthur, as the Rijksmuseum's description puts it; the battle, it adds, began with a Japanese surprise attack with torpedoes on unsuspecting Russian ships. Publishers issued such scenes in numbered series, like instalments of a newspaper. The drama is Japanese triumph; the drowning crew are its cost.
The vessels The Russian Pacific Squadron was based at the fortified naval base of Port Arthur, where Japanese torpedo attacks and bombardments damaged several of its battleships and cruisers in 1904.
Sources Rijksmuseum · Wikipedia
Image: Gakyōjin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Mikasa Named ship
Admiral Tōgō on the Bridge of the Mikasa (Mikasa kankyō no zu), 1906 (repainted after the Great Kantō earthquake)
Artist Tōjō Shōtarō (1865 to 1929)
Medium Oil on canvas
The Navy Ministry sent Tōjō to follow the war at sea in 1904 and in 1906 commissioned its naval battle pictures from him. This one shows Tōgō Heihachirō on the bridge of Mikasa at Tsushima on 27 May 1905, just after the Z flag was hoisted; the flag at the upper left is being lowered. Every figure is a real officer or rating, from Akiyama Saneyuki and Katō Tomosaburō to the young messengers, and the compass is wrapped in hammocks against shell splinters. The painter Uchida Iwao called it a masterpiece of Meiji war painting. The original burned in the Great Kantō earthquake and Tōjō painted it again with the same people.
The real ship Mikasa was a British-built pre-dreadnought battleship and Tōgō's flagship throughout the Russo-Japanese War, including Port Arthur, the Yellow Sea and Tsushima. She sank after a magazine explosion days after the war, was raised and repaired, and after 1922 was preserved as a museum ship at Yokosuka; she is the last surviving British-built battleship.
Sources Wikipedia (JA) · Wikipedia
Image: Tōjō Shōtarō, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Huáscar and Almirante Cochrane Named ship
Naval Battle of Angamos (Combate naval de Angamos), 1913
Artist Thomas Somerscales (1842 to 1927)
Where to see it Banco Central de Chile, Santiago (Inv. 39879-9)
Medium Oil on canvas
After Iquique the Peruvian monitor Huáscar dominated the coast, and catching her became essential for Chile. On 8 October 1879 off Punta de Angamos she met the ironclad Cochrane under Juan José Latorre; a shell pierced Huáscar's armour and killed Admiral Miguel Grau, and by ten past eleven Chilean marines had boarded her. Somerscales painted the action in several versions. This late one, from 1913, is a small canvas of about half a metre by eighty centimetres, which the bank's catalogue praises for its vigorous composition, impasto and colour.
The real ship Huáscar, the Peruvian monitor that had sunk the Esmeralda at Iquique, was engaged by the Chilean ironclad Cochrane off Punta de Angamos on 8 October 1879 and captured after Grau was killed.
Sources coleccion.bcentral.cl · artistasvisualeschilenos.cl
Image: Thomas Somerscales, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Drawing
HMS Monmouth Named ship
'Count Spee Sinking Monmouth' at the Battle of Coronel, 1 November 1914
Artist William Lionel Wyllie (1851 to 1931)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (PAF1785)
Medium Watercolour with pen and ink
At Coronel, off the coast of Chile, Admiral von Spee's squadron met a weaker British force, and both Good Hope and Monmouth went down with all hands; only Glasgow and the auxiliary cruiser Otranto escaped. Monmouth, set on fire by Gneisenau, was still afloat in the dark when the light cruiser Nürnberg found her. She did not haul down her flag. Wyllie shows the last moment, Monmouth capsizing under Nürnberg's guns on the left, with one slip the museum points out: her forward turret, already blown overboard, still sits on the forecastle.
“Monmouth's forward turret had been blown over the side by the gunfire of the Gneisenau”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Monmouth (1901) was a British armoured cruiser. Set on fire by Gneisenau at Coronel on 1 November 1914, she was found in the dark by the light cruiser Nürnberg, which opened fire again, and she capsized with the loss of all hands.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
Image: William Lionel Wyllie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
SMS Leipzig Named ship
The Last Man (Der letzte Mann), 1914
Artist Hans Bohrdt (1857 to 1945)
Location Lost (whereabouts unknown since 1916)
Medium Painting (known from reproductions)
Bohrdt's picture became one of the best-known German propaganda images of the First World War. It shows a sailor with the war ensign in his hand standing on the keel of the capsized light cruiser Leipzig at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914, while in the background the Scharnhorst, already burning, fights on. Bohrdt, whose greatest patron was Kaiser Wilhelm II, made hundreds of illustrations for books, magazines and postcards in these years. The painting itself has been considered lost since 1916 and survives through old postcards.
The real ship Leipzig, a Bremen-class light cruiser, was built by AG Weser in Bremen, launched in March 1905 and commissioned in 1906. She fought at Coronel and was chased down and sunk at the Falklands by HMS Glasgow and HMS Cornwall on 8 December 1914; only 18 of her crew survived.
Sources Wikipedia (DE) · Wikipedia · Wikimedia Commons
Image: Hans Bohrdt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
SMS Ariadne Named ship
The Light Cruiser SMS Ariadne in Action (Kleiner Kreuzer SMS Ariadne im Gefecht), 1914
Artist Willy Stöwer (1864 to 1931)
Source Bundesarchiv, Koblenz (DVM 10 Bild 23 61 47, photograph of the painting)
Medium Painting (known from photographic reproduction)
Stöwer was a board member of the German Navy League, and Kaiser Wilhelm II was an enthusiastic supporter who owned several of his works and took him on his voyages. Here he paints one of the first German losses of the war at sea. On 28 August 1914 Ariadne, an old light cruiser recalled from reserve to lead torpedo boats on the North Sea coast, sortied into the Heligoland Bight to reinforce the patrols and was surprised and sunk by British battlecruisers. Pictures like this one showed the public at home a war at sea they could not see.
The real ship Fifth of the ten Gazelle-class light cruisers, armed with ten 10.5 cm guns, Ariadne served with the fleet from 1902 to 1906 and then lay in reserve. Reactivated on 2 August 1914, she was surprised and sunk by British battlecruisers at the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August 1914.
Sources Wikipedia (DE) · Wikipedia · Wikimedia Commons
Image: Willy Stöwer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
SMS Scharnhorst Named ship
Sinking of the 'Scharnhorst' at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, 8 December 1914, c. 1915
Artist Thomas Somerscales (1842 to 1927)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0655)
Medium Oil on canvas
Five weeks after his victory at Coronel, Vice Admiral von Spee made for Port Stanley and ran into Sturdee's battlecruisers, Invincible and Inflexible, sent to avenge that defeat. Somerscales, who ran a painting school in Valparaíso for nearly twenty years and kept his ties with Chile, shows the end: Scharnhorst on the left, listing to port and sinking by the stern, her bow out of the water and fire aft, while the smoke and gun flashes of the British ships continue in the distance. She capsized after four hours with no survivors, von Spee and his two sons among the dead.
“listing to port and sinking by the stern, her bow out of the water”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Scharnhorst (1906) was the flagship of von Spee's German Far Eastern squadron, victorious at Coronel on 1 November 1914. At the Falklands on 8 December 1914 she was engaged by Invincible and capsized with all hands; Gneisenau sank an hour later and only Dresden escaped.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
Image: Thomas Somerscales, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
SMS Lützow, Derfflinger, Seydlitz, Moltke and Von der Tann Named ship
Admiral Hipper's Battlecruisers: Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916
Artist Claus Bergen (1885 to 1964)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0661)
Medium Oil on canvas
Jutland from the other side. Claus Bergen, official German war artist, paints the opening of the battle as Vice Admiral Hipper's five battlecruisers, Von der Tann, Moltke, Seydlitz, Derfflinger and Lützow, strung out along the horizon, exchange fire with British ships seen only as distant flashes, while columns of water rise from near misses. The open sea fills two fifths of a canvas nearly three and a half metres wide. The painting came to Greenwich from the Naval War Trophies Committee in the mid-1940s.
“columns of water spout up from near misses”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Hipper's five battlecruisers formed the scouting group of the German High Seas Fleet at Jutland and sank two British battlecruisers in the early stages without loss; his flagship Lützow was later lost, and Von der Tann's salvoes had destroyed HMS Indefatigable.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Print
A German U-boat and an armed British steam trawler Unnamed
A German U-boat Destroying an Armed British Steam Trawler (Deutsches U-Boot, einen bewaffneten englischen Fischdampfer vernichtend), 1916
Artist Willy Stöwer (1864 to 1931)
Where to see it Library of Congress, Washington (LCCN 2002697970)
Medium Colour halftone photomechanical print
By 1916 the war at sea had reached the fishing grounds, where British steam trawlers now carried guns and German submarines surfaced to sink them. Stöwer, a board member of the German Navy League whose work Kaiser Wilhelm II admired and collected, painted this scene of a U-boat destroying an armed British trawler. It was reproduced in colour as a book illustration in Deutsche U-Boot-Taten in Bild und Wort, a volume celebrating the deeds of the U-boats. It is propaganda made for a public at home, and also a record of a new and grim kind of war.
The vessels As the title states, the victim is an armed British steam fishing trawler destroyed by a German U-boat; neither vessel is named.
Sources Library of Congress · Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia (DE)
Image: Willy Stöwer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Drawing
HMS Indefatigable Named ship
HMS 'Indefatigable' Exploding at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916, 1916 to 1917
Artist William Lionel Wyllie (1851 to 1931)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (PAE3158)
Medium Grey wash
The first great loss of Jutland came early in the battlecruiser action. At 16.02 to 16.03 on 31 May 1916 the German battlecruiser Von der Tann hit Indefatigable with successive salvoes of 11-inch shells and she blew up; of her crew only two survived. Wyllie, once described as the most distinguished marine artist of his day, set the moment down in grey wash, an atmospheric drawing rather than a finished battle piece. The museum is honest that it is not yet known whether he worked from eyewitness accounts or from a photograph.
“whether this atmospheric drawing is based on eyewitness accounts or a photograph remains to be determined”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Indefatigable (1909) was a British battlecruiser at Jutland. Hit by successive salvoes from Von der Tann, she blew up with the loss of 1,017 officers and men; there were only two survivors.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
Image: William Lionel Wyllie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Maenad Named ship
HMS 'Maenad' at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May to 1 June 1916, c. 1916 to 1920
Artist James Finlayson Feteridge (c. 1889 to 1960)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0666)
Medium Oil on thick fabric-backed paper (the back of a chart)
This is Jutland painted by a man who was there. James Feteridge was a quartermaster in the destroyer Maenad, and afterwards he painted her night attack on the German battleships in the early hours of 1 June 1916 on the back of part of a navigational chart. Her after gun fires as she turns away from the German line, a battleship silhouetted beyond. The museum calls it a striking and unusual example of amateur work; one of her officers remembered a torpedo taking effect with a most splendid explosion.
“one of our torpedoes take effect on one of the Germans, and a most splendid explosion resulted”
Sub Lieutenant the Hon. A. Stuart, HMS Maenad, eyewitness account quoted by Royal Museums Greenwich
The real ship Maenad was an M-class destroyer completed in 1915 and scrapped in 1921. At Jutland, in the 12th Destroyer Flotilla, she attacked German battleships with torpedoes at about 02.00 on 1 June 1916.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Queen Elizabeth-class battleships of the 5th Battle Squadron Named ship
'Queen Elizabeth' Class Ships of the 5th Battle Squadron at the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916, probably 1916 to 1939
Artist Arthur Douglas Wales-Smith (1888 to 1966)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0663)
Medium Oil on canvas
The four battleships of the 5th Battle Squadron, in line ahead and firing to starboard at the German battlecruisers on the distant horizon, while German shells that have overshot burst in the sea to the right. Wales-Smith was a naval officer, and the painting shows it: it was long catalogued as the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, until the casemate guns, mainmasts and bridge structures identified the ships as the Queen Elizabeth class, the only battleships at Jutland with all three. It is a sailor's picture of a squadron at full stretch.
The real ship The four Queen Elizabeth-class battleships of the 5th Battle Squadron followed the British battlecruisers at Jutland, coming into action against the German battlecruisers at 16.08 on 31 May 1916 and firing their last shots at 19.30.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Drawing
SMS Blücher Named ship
'The Last of Blücher', 1916
Artist William Lionel Wyllie (1851 to 1931)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (PAF1765)
Medium Watercolour
At Dogger Bank on 24 January 1915 the gunnery began at nine in the morning, and at seven minutes past twelve the armoured cruiser Blücher, after many shell hits and a reported seven torpedoes, rolled over. Wyllie shows her capsizing to port, with the battlecruiser Tiger in the right background, and takes a painter's liberty by setting a British destroyer far closer than it could have been, for the sake of the composition. British destroyers picked up 189 of her men. The picture was reproduced in colour in Wyllie's Sea Fights of the Great War in 1918.
The real ship Blücher (1908) was a German armoured cruiser. At the Battle of Dogger Bank on 24 January 1915 she was hit by many shells and torpedoes and capsized at 12.07; 189 of her crew were rescued by British destroyers.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
Image: William Lionel Wyllie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Vindictive Named ship
HMS 'Vindictive' at Zeebrugge, 23 April 1918
Artist Charles John de Lacy (1856 to 1929)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0669)
Medium Oil on canvas
On the night of 23 April 1918 more than 70 vessels and about 1,700 men attacked Zeebrugge, the Belgian port the Germans used for their U-boats. De Lacy, a Sunderland-born painter and illustrator for the Illustrated London News and the Graphic, shows the old cruiser Vindictive alongside the Mole from the seaward end, landing men while more go ashore from a second vessel, the glow beyond lit by bursting star shells. Militarily inconclusive, the raid was hailed in propaganda as a victory, and eight Victoria Crosses were awarded.
The real ship Vindictive was an old cruiser launched in 1897 and refitted with mortars, flame throwers and howitzers for the raid. She took heavy damage alongside the Zeebrugge Mole on 23 April 1918 but came away, and less than a month later was sunk as a blockship at Ostend.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
Image: Charles John de Lacy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Cardiff with SMS Seydlitz, Moltke, Hindenburg, Derfflinger and Von der Tann Named ship
HMS 'Cardiff' Leading the German High Seas Fleet to Surrender in the Firth of Forth, 21 November 1918, 1919
Artist Charles Dixon (1872 to 1934)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0670)
Medium Oil on canvas
After the Armistice the German High Seas Fleet sailed, mainly from Kiel, under Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter to meet the British Grand Fleet. Dixon paints the light cruiser Cardiff at the head of the line, leading the battlecruisers Seydlitz, Moltke, Hindenburg, Derfflinger and Von der Tann into the Firth of Forth on 21 November 1918, where Beatty ordered that the German flag be hauled down at sunset. It is the end of Jutland's story: the ships were interned at Scapa Flow, where von Reuter had them scuttled in June 1919.
The real ship Cardiff (1917) was a British light cruiser, flagship of the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron, chosen to lead the German fleet into the Forth. The surrendered ships were interned at Scapa Flow, and most sank when their own crews scuttled them on 21 June 1919.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Southampton Named ship
HMS 'Southampton' on the Morning of the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916, early to mid-20th century
Artist Oscar Parkes (1885 to 1958)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC3871)
Medium Oil on canvas
Oscar Parkes was a naval surgeon who became an official naval artist, ran the naval photographic section of the new Imperial War Museum and edited Jane's Fighting Ships from 1918 to 1935. He painted ships the way an expert reads them: here Southampton, flagship of Commodore Goodenough's 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron, in a moderate sea on the morning of Jutland, with a crow's nest on her shortened foremast and her after guns trained to starboard. In the battle she torpedoed the German cruiser Frauenlob, which sank.
The real ship Southampton was a Town-class light cruiser and flagship of the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron under Commodore W. E. Goodenough at Jutland, where she torpedoed and sank the German light cruiser Frauenlob.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
Image: Oscar Parkes, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Admiral Scheer Named ship
The German Pocket Battleship 'Admiral Scheer' Bombarding the Spanish Coast, 1937
Artist Claus Bergen (1885 to 1964)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0671)
Medium Oil on canvas
On 31 May 1937, during the Spanish Civil War and in reprisal for an air attack on her sister ship Deutschland, the Admiral Scheer shelled the city of Almería, killing and wounding civilians. Claus Bergen shows her at the centre of the canvas firing in flashes and great clouds of black smoke towards the distant coast, white spray rising from shells around her. The painting was rushed, still wet, to the Great German Art Exhibition in Munich that year, and Hitler bought it for the Reich Chancellery; it has been suggested the Nazi leadership saw it as a riposte to Picasso's Guernica.
“firing in flashes and great clouds of black smoke towards the coastline”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Admiral Scheer was a Deutschland-class heavy cruiser, usually called a pocket battleship, launched in 1933. She bombarded Almería on 31 May 1937 and in November 1940 attacked Convoy HX84, sinking its escort, the armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
The Dunkirk evacuation fleet: destroyers, paddle steamers and small craft Unnamed
Withdrawal from Dunkirk, June 1940
Artist Richard Eurich (1903 to 1992)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0672)
Medium Oil on canvas
Eurich was not at Dunkirk. He painted it in Southampton from notes, sketches made the summer before, eyewitness accounts and a few photographs, and chose a viewpoint as if from a low-flying aircraft. Below, soldiers queue along the beach under air attack, small boats heeled over or capsized under the weight of men carry them out to a paddle steamer and larger ships, and a vast pall of smoke from bombed oil tanks hangs over the town. In all, 366,162 men were brought home. The picture became the Navy's Christmas card for 1940.
“notes, sketches made the previous summer, on-the-spot accounts, and a few photographs”
Royal Museums Greenwich, on Eurich's sources
The vessels Between 20 May and 4 June 1940 naval vessels, paddle steamers, fishing craft and many small boats evacuated 366,162 men of the British Expeditionary Force and Allied forces from Dunkirk harbour, its two moles and the beaches.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Jervis Bay Named ship
The 'Jervis Bay' Action, 5 November 1940, 1941
Artist Charles Pears (1873 to 1958)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC2412)
Medium Oil on canvas
Jervis Bay was a former passenger liner turned armed merchant cruiser, the only protection of a 37-ship convoy, when the German Admiral Scheer attacked. Captain Fegen ordered the convoy to scatter and turned towards the enemy. His ship and several others were sunk, but 31 escaped, and Fegen's sacrifice was recognised with a posthumous Victoria Cross. Pears, a noted contributor of marine subjects to the illustrated press, painted the action within a year with the clarity the museum describes, easily understood by the public: a hopeless fight chosen deliberately.
“ordered the convoy to scatter and turned towards the enemy”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Jervis Bay was launched as a Commonwealth Line passenger steamer and converted to an armed merchant cruiser. Escorting convoy HX 84, she was sunk by the Admiral Scheer on 5 November 1940; 68 of her crew of 254 were picked up by the neutral Swedish ship Stureholm.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Bismarck and HMS Dorsetshire Named ship
The Sinking of the 'Bismarck', 27 May 1941, 1941 to 1945
Artist Charles Edward Turner (1883 to 1965)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0679)
Medium Oil on canvas
Commissioned by Sir Bruce Ingram of the Illustrated London News, apparently as an oil copy of Turner's double-page illustration published on 7 June 1941, the picture shows the last minutes of the hunt. Bismarck wallows in the sea, listing to port, with a huge hole in her forecastle pouring flame and smoke, while the cruiser Dorsetshire stands in the background about to launch the torpedoes that finished her. Turner painted naval actions for the illustrated press with a closely observed, highly detailed finish: here the great ship is alone and beaten, and the cruiser waits.
“wallowing in the sea, in starboard-bow view, listing to port”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Bismarck sailed from Kiel on 18 May 1941 with Prinz Eugen, fought Hood and Prince of Wales, and was crippled by Ark Royal's aircraft. On 27 May Tovey's ships reduced her to a burning wreck, Dorsetshire was ordered to finish her with torpedoes, and she sank at 10.39 am; 110 survivors and the ship's cat were rescued.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau Named ship
Air Attack on the 'Scharnhorst' and 'Gneisenau', 11 to 12 February 1942, c. 1942 to 1944
Artist Norman Wilkinson (1878 to 1971)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC1625)
Medium Oil on canvas
In February 1942 the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, broke out of Brest and ran up the Channel to German ports. The British had intelligence of the plan and threw in heavy air attacks at great cost, yet the ships got through. The Times called it the most mortifying blow to British sea power since the seventeenth century. Wilkinson chose to paint that failure too, the aircraft going in against the German ships as they passed.
“Nothing more mortifying to the pride of our sea-power has happened since the seventeenth century.”
The Times, 14 February 1942 (quoted by Royal Museums Greenwich)
The real ship Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, both of 1936, were German capital ships based at occupied Brest. In Operation Cerberus, the Channel Dash of February 1942, they escaped with the cruiser Prinz Eugen to German ports. Scharnhorst was sunk in the Arctic on 26 December 1943.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Mogami and Mikuma Named ship
Attack on Japanese Cruisers Mogami and Mikuma from the Air, 1942
Artist Griffith Baily Coale (1890 to 1950)
Where to see it Naval History and Heritage Command, Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.
Medium Painting
The last act of Midway belonged to two cruisers. Mogami and Mikuma, sisters of a class built to the very limits of the Washington Naval Treaty and known to be unstable and top-heavy, were attacked by American aircraft on the final day of the battle. As the Navy's caption puts it, the Mogami was heavily damaged but escaped, while the Mikuma was sunk on 6 June. Coale, the painter who had persuaded Admiral Nimitz to send artists to sea, and who later wrote Victory at Midway, recorded the attack for the Navy.
The real ship Mikuma, second of the four Mogami-class cruisers, was laid down in 1931 and completed at Mitsubishi's Nagasaki yard in 1935. She fought at the Battle of Sunda Strait in February 1942 and was sunk at Midway on 6 June 1942; her sister Mogami survived the attack heavily damaged.
Sources Naval History and Heritage Command · Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Griffith Baily Coale, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Campbeltown Named ship
HMS 'Campbeltown' at St Nazaire, 27 March 1942, c. 1942 to 1943
Artist Norman Wilkinson (1878 to 1971)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC1597)
Medium Oil on canvas
The raid on St Nazaire in March 1942 was aimed at a single target: the only dry dock on the Atlantic coast that could take the largest German warships. The old destroyer Campbeltown, loaded with explosives, was rammed into the dock, which stayed out of service until the end of the war. Wilkinson paints the night as a storm of searchlight beams, flak and columns of smoke, with the ship at the heart of it, a vessel sent on a voyage from which she was never meant to return.
“the only dry-dock on the Atlantic coast capable of servicing large German warships”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Campbeltown (1919) was an obsolete destroyer. Loaded with explosives, she was rammed into the dock at St Nazaire during the raid of March 1942, putting it out of use for the rest of the war.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū Named ship
Dive Bombing Japanese Carriers, 1942
Artist Griffith Baily Coale (1890 to 1950)
Where to see it Naval History and Heritage Command, Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.
Medium Painting
Coale was the painter who persuaded Admiral Nimitz to put artists aboard Navy ships, and so founded the Navy Combat Art Program; he later wrote a book, Victory at Midway. This picture shows the turning point of the Pacific war as American dive bombers fall on the Japanese carriers. The Navy's caption describes the Kaga crossing the foreground with the planes she had tried so hard to launch caught on her deck, while the Akagi smokes and the Soryu burns. Coale built the scene from the recollections of Ensign George Gay of Torpedo 8, who watched the battle from the water after being shot down.
The real ship Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū, the four Japanese fleet carriers at Midway, were all sunk at Midway in June 1942.
Sources Naval History and Heritage Command · Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Griffith Baily Coale, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Bismarck Named ship
End of the 'Bismarck', 27 May 1941, c. 1942 to 1944
Artist Norman Wilkinson (1878 to 1971)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC1605)
Medium Oil on canvas
In his series The War at Sea Wilkinson set out to record the work of the Royal Navy, the Merchant Navy and Coastal Command, and few episodes were greater than the end of Bismarck. After sailing from Kiel with Prinz Eugen, fighting Hood and Prince of Wales in the Denmark Strait, and being crippled by torpedo aircraft from Ark Royal, she was brought to bay on 27 May 1941 by Admiral Tovey's ships and sank that morning. The canvas is one of the 54 paintings of the series that Wilkinson presented to the nation.
The real ship Bismarck left Kiel with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen on 18 May 1941. After fighting Hood and Prince of Wales, and with her rudders jammed by a torpedo from Ark Royal's Swordfish, she was engaged by Tovey's King George V and Rodney on 27 May and sank at 10.39 am; only 110 survivors, and the ship's cat, were saved.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
The US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor Unnamed
Japan Signs Her Own Death Warrant: Attack on Pearl Harbour, 7 December 1941, c. 1942
Artist Norman Wilkinson (1878 to 1971)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC1634)
Medium Oil on canvas
Wilkinson's title says what the attack meant to a British painter in 1942: the moment that brought the United States into the war. The museum describes a scene that gives a sense of the heavy casualties and damage, with dark billowing smoke covering most of the canvas against the clear turquoise water. At the centre a stricken battleship heels over, other ships burn around her, and small figures in the foreground are helpless witnesses to the event unfolding before them.
The vessels On 7 December 1941 Japanese aircraft attacked the US Pacific naval base at Pearl Harbor, an attack that brought the United States into the war.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
USS Hornet Named ship
Mitchells Taking Off from US Carrier 'Hornet', 18 April 1942, c. 1942 to 1944
Artist Norman Wilkinson (1878 to 1971)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC1603)
Medium Oil on canvas
Four months after Pearl Harbor, sixteen Army B-25 Mitchell bombers flew off the deck of the carrier Hornet at the limit of their range to bomb Japanese cities and fly on to friendly territory in China. The raid, conceived by Colonel James Doolittle, did little physical damage, but the museum judges its psychological impact critical. Wilkinson shows the improbable sight of heavy army bombers leaving a carrier deck far out at sea.
“16 Army B-25 Mitchells fly off at maximum range from a US Navy carrier and bomb various Japanese cities”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Hornet was a Yorktown-class aircraft carrier, commissioned a month before Pearl Harbor. In April 1942 she launched the Doolittle Raid, fought at Midway that June, and was sunk after being crippled at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Warspite, HMS Valiant and HMS Barham with the Italian cruisers Zara and Fiume Named ship
Night Action off Cape Matapan, Greece, 28 March 1941, c. 1942 to 1944
Artist Norman Wilkinson (1878 to 1971)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC1601)
Medium Oil on canvas
Off Cape Matapan in March 1941 Admiral Cunningham's Mediterranean Fleet, with Australian ships in company, caught Admiral Iachino's Italian squadron and sank or badly damaged many of its ships. Wilkinson shows the night action with three British battleships nearest the viewer, Valiant, Warspite and Barham, and the Italian cruisers Zara and Fiume beyond. The museum points out that Barham, in the middle of the picture, can be told from her sisters because she alone had not been rebuilt in the 1930s, a detail Wilkinson set down faithfully.
The real ship Warspite (1913), Valiant (1914) and Barham (1914) were British battleships of the First World War generation. At Matapan in March 1941, under Admiral Cunningham, they took part in the night action against Italian ships including the cruisers Zara and Fiume.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
SS Ohio Named ship
The 'Ohio' in the Malta Convoy, 10 to 15 August 1942, c. 1942 to 1944
Artist Norman Wilkinson (1878 to 1971)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC1593)
Medium Oil on canvas
In August 1942 Malta was close to the end, above all for want of fuel, and Operation Pedestal was fought to get a convoy through. Many ships were lost on the way, but the tanker Ohio, the only one carrying the vital kerosene and diesel, reached the island in a near-sinking condition. She arrived on the Feast of the Assumption, which the Maltese took as a sign of divine help, and she is still remembered there as the saviour of the island. Wilkinson painted her in the convoy and again entering Malta, both in his War at Sea series.
“the only one carrying vital kerosene and diesel oil”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Ohio was an oil tanker built for The Texas Company by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. at Chester, Pennsylvania, and launched in April 1940. Requisitioned by Britain for the Pedestal convoy of August 1942, she reached Malta so badly damaged that she never sailed again.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMNZS Achilles, HMS Ajax and Admiral Graf Spee Named ship
The Pursuit of the 'Graf Spee' by HMS 'Ajax' and 'Achilles' at the Battle of the River Plate, 13 December 1939, c. 1942
Artist Norman Wilkinson (1878 to 1971)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC1617)
Medium Oil on canvas
Wilkinson shows the pursuit at about half past seven in the morning of 13 December 1939. The New Zealand cruiser Achilles is nearest to us, and Ajax, Commodore Harwood's flagship, on the left, has already had her mainmast shot away, while the German Admiral Graf Spee shows in the distance beyond Achilles's bow. In 1940 Wilkinson exhibited a River Plate painting at the Royal Academy made from a description by Captain C. H. L. Woodhouse of Ajax; this may be the same canvas. It belongs to his series The War at Sea, 54 paintings he presented to the nation through the War Artists Advisory Committee.
“Painted from a description of the battle by Captain C.H.L. Woodhouse R.N., H.M.S. Ajax.”
Royal Academy catalogue, 1940, as quoted by Royal Museums Greenwich
The real ship Ajax and Achilles were Leander-class light cruisers with six-inch guns; Achilles was on loan to the New Zealand Division. With the heavy cruiser Exeter, under Commodore Henry Harwood, they engaged the Admiral Graf Spee off the River Plate on 13 December 1939. The German ship put into Montevideo and was scuttled on Captain Langsdorff's order on 17 December.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
San Demetrio Named ship
The 'San Demetrio' at the 'Jervis Bay' Action, 5 November 1940, c. 1942
Artist Norman Wilkinson (1878 to 1971)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC1615)
Medium Oil on canvas
The Jervis Bay action had a sequel that became one of the legends of the Merchant Navy. The tanker San Demetrio, hit and set on fire by the German raider Admiral Scheer, was abandoned by her crew. Some 24 hours later the men in one of her lifeboats sighted a burning ship and found it was their own, still afloat. They climbed back aboard, put out the fire and sailed her across the Atlantic to Ireland without charts, saving ship and cargo. Wilkinson paints the moment of choice, the boat's crew about to return to their ship.
The real ship San Demetrio (1938) was a motor tanker in Convoy HX84 when the Admiral Scheer attacked it on 5 November 1940. Abandoned while burning, she was reboarded by sixteen of her crew, who put out the fire and brought her and her aviation fuel cargo across the Atlantic to Ireland and on to the Clyde.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Warspite Named ship
The Second Battle of Narvik, 13 April 1940, c. 1942 to 1944
Artist Norman Wilkinson (1878 to 1971)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC1600)
Medium Oil on canvas
On 13 April 1940 a force under Vice Admiral Whitworth, the battleship Warspite with six destroyers, entered Ofotfjord, where German destroyers were known to be sheltering, and put seven of them out of action. Wilkinson places Warspite to the right with what the museum calls her brood of destroyers around her, a battleship brought into the narrow waters of a Norwegian fjord. The painting belongs to the War at Sea series he gave to the nation.
“a naval force under the command of Vice-Admiral Whitworth, consisting of HMS ‘Warspite’ and six destroyers, entered Ofot Fjord”
Catalogue of 'The War at Sea', National Gallery, 1944 (quoted by Royal Museums Greenwich)
The real ship Warspite was a British battleship launched in 1913. On 13 April 1940 she led the force of destroyers that attacked the German destroyers at Narvik in the Second Battle of Narvik.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Onslow Named ship
Captain Sherbrook's Action, 31 December 1942, 1943
Artist Charles Pears (1873 to 1958)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0682)
Medium Oil on canvas
On New Year's Eve 1942, inside the Arctic Circle, the German cruiser Hipper and the pocket battleship Lützow attacked a convoy bound for Russia. Captain Robert Sherbrooke in the destroyer Onslow commanded the escort; his ship was badly hit and he was wounded, but the escorts held the enemy off through a four-hour engagement until the cruisers Sheffield and Jamaica came up and the Germans broke off. He received the Victoria Cross. Pears lights the scene only by gun flashes: orange bursts against sombre greys, smoke and snow, with Onslow alone at the centre.
“The only illumination comes from the firing of the guns”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Onslow was the Royal Navy destroyer leading the escort of Convoy JW 51B to Russia at the Battle of the Barents Sea on 31 December 1942. She was badly damaged in the action.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Drawing
USS Emmons (DD-457) Named ship
The Battle for Fox Green Beach, 1944
Artist Dwight Shepler (1905 to 1974)
Where to see it U.S. Navy Art Collection, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C. (KN-570)
Medium Watercolour
Dwight Shepler was a Navy combat artist who took part in the 1944 Normandy invasion as an artist, working afterwards from his sketches and film, and this watercolour is D-Day at Omaha Beach seen from the sea. The destroyer Emmons bombards in support of the landings at Fox Green, one of the destroyers that fought shore batteries at less than a thousand yards that morning. Shepler painted more than 300 pictures over his career, and here a single grey warship stands for the fleet's support of the men ashore.
The real ship USS Emmons was a Gleaves-class destroyer. On 6 June 1944 she guarded the minesweepers, joined the bombardment before the Omaha landings and stayed off the beachhead for three days; she later supported the invasion of southern France, was converted to a destroyer minesweeper, and was lost after being struck by five kamikazes off Okinawa on 6 April 1945.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Dwight Shepler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Tirpitz Named ship
Midget Submarine Attack on the 'Tirpitz', 22 September 1943, 1944
Artist Richard Eurich (1903 to 1992)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0684)
Medium Oil on mahogany panel
Eurich, official war artist to the Admiralty, never saw action himself; he worked from confidential intelligence and interviews with men who had taken part. His long panorama gives most of its space to the snowy Norwegian mountains, lit with an uncanny calm, while the ships sit small in the fjord below, one of them with fire and smoke rising from her. Then the view drops beneath the surface, into dark water where mines hang like jellyfish, presumably the viewpoint of a submarine. The attack is felt rather than shown.
“presumably the viewpoint of a submarine”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Tirpitz (1939) was one of the two largest German battleships. While stationed in Norway in September 1943 she was damaged by British midget submarines and put out of action for months.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Allied landing craft crossing the Channel Unnamed
The Road to Normandy, June 1944
Artist Norman Wilkinson (1878 to 1971)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC1590)
Medium Oil on canvas
Wilkinson, then in his sixties, was aboard the destroyer HMS Jervis on D-Day and for some days afterwards, sketching as the invasion went in. From those sketches came eight paintings on the Navy's part in the invasion, and this one, landing craft crossing the Channel, was chosen as the cover of the catalogue when the War at Sea series was shown at the National Gallery in 1944. It closes the group: the long road over the water that every soldier had to travel before the beaches.
The vessels Landing craft of many types carried troops, vehicles and stores across the Channel for the Normandy landings of June 1944.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Rodney Named ship
'Rodney' Steaming through the Anchorage, 6 June 1944
Artist Norman Wilkinson (1878 to 1971)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC1594)
Medium Oil on canvas
Among the sketches Wilkinson made from the destroyer HMS Jervis off Normandy was the battleship Rodney moving through the crowded invasion anchorage. Her 16-inch guns gave naval gunfire support to the landings and to the fighting near Caen that followed, and Wilkinson painted her again firing on inshore targets with Warspite. This picture is the fifth of the eight works on the Navy's part in the invasion within his War at Sea series.
The real ship Rodney was one of two Nelson-class battleships, entering service in 1928 with 16-inch guns. She played a major role in the sinking of Bismarck in 1941 and gave naval gunfire support during the Normandy landings of June 1944; she was scrapped in 1948.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Scharnhorst Named ship
Sinking of the Scharnhorst, 26 December 1943, 1944
Artist Charles Pears (1873 to 1958)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0685)
Medium Oil on canvas
Pears places us at about 6.49 in the evening of Boxing Day 1943, in the Arctic night. Scharnhorst, hunted down by the battleship Duke of York with cruisers and destroyers, is being hit: three shell bursts show on her and a torpedo from the destroyer Scorpion explodes at her bow. The scene is lit by eight star shells, and the museum notes a stillness, as if the whole action had been frozen in time. It was painted for the War Artists' Advisory Committee.
“Three shell bursts can be seen on her and a torpedo is exploding on her bow”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Scharnhorst was a German battleship launched in 1936 that took part in the Channel Dash of 1942. Sent out against an Arctic convoy, she was surrounded and sunk on 26 December 1943 by a force led by HMS Duke of York; only thirty-six of her crew were found alive.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Tirpitz Named ship
The 'Tirpitz' Attacked by Barracudas, 3 April 1944, 1944 to 1945
Artist Charles Pears (1873 to 1958)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0687)
Medium Oil on canvas
Tirpitz lay in Altenfjord in Norway, a threat to the Arctic convoys. On 3 April 1944, in Operation Tungsten, 21 Barracuda bombers and 40 fighters flew off British carriers and took her completely by surprise. Pears, working from a photograph of the ship, shows the fjord closed in by snow-clad mountains, bombs falling on and around her and a great column of black and white smoke rising above her, with the patterned, graphic energy of the poster designer he had been. Wilkinson painted the same raid for his own series.
“bombs falling on and around her and a great column of black and white smoke rising above her”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Tirpitz (1939) was, with Bismarck, one of the two largest German battleships. Damaged by British midget submarines in September 1943, she was hit again by carrier aircraft in Operation Tungsten on 3 April 1944, and was finally sunk by Lancaster bombers.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Eagle and HMS Gloucester Named ship
HMS 'Eagle' and 'Gloucester' off Calabria, 9 July 1940, mid-20th century
Artist Rowland Langmaid (1897 to 1956)
Where to see it National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (BHC0674)
Medium Oil on canvas
Off Calabria in July 1940 came the first major action between the British Mediterranean Fleet and the Italian navy. Langmaid, who served in the Royal Navy in both wars and was official Admiralty artist to the Mediterranean Fleet from 1941 to 1943, painted it from life: the carrier Eagle in the centre, the cruiser Gloucester on the right, and the Italian fleet in the distance amid heavy bombing. His palette is so restrained that the museum likens the effect to a photograph, a sailor's record rather than a romantic battle piece.
“the first major action between the British and Mediterranean Fleet and Italian navy”
Royal Museums Greenwich, catalogue entry
The real ship Eagle (1918) was an aircraft carrier whose aircraft sank an Italian destroyer at Calabria; the cruiser Gloucester (1937) had been damaged by Italian bombers the day before. Both served with Cunningham's Mediterranean Fleet in the action of 9 July 1940.
Sources Royal Museums Greenwich · Wikipedia
No free image of this work exists. The photograph shows the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, where the original is kept. Photo: TxllxT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. See the work at the museum
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
An Ottoman frigate set ablaze by a Greek fireship Unnamed
The Burning of a Turkish Frigate (Το κάψιμο της τουρκικής φρεγάτας), undated
Artist Konstantinos Volanakis (c. 1837 to 1907)
Where to see it Private collection, Athens
Medium Oil on canvas
The fireship attacks of the Greek War of Independence were the navy's founding legend, and Volanakis painted the burning of an Ottoman warship at least twice; another version, dated 1882, is in the Naval Museum at Piraeus. His way of telling it is his own: where Nikiphoros Lytras put the fireship crew in the foreground rowing hard to escape, Volanakis makes the burning ship itself the heart of the picture, wrapped in flame, with Turkish sailors in the water as small details and the Greek fire-raisers barely visible. The sea, ships and harbours were his lifelong inspiration.
The vessels During the Greek War of Independence Greek seamen used fireships against the larger Ottoman sailing warships. The frigate in the picture is not identified.
Sources Wikipedia (EL) · Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia
Image: Konstantinos Volanakis, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
Esmeralda and Huáscar Named ship
Naval Battle of Iquique (Combate Naval de Iquique), undated
Artist Thomas Somerscales (1842 to 1927)
Where to see it Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago (84 x 145 cm)
Medium Oil on canvas
Somerscales, a former officer and instructor in the British navy who settled in Valparaíso, became the painter who illustrated Chile's War of the Pacific with the rigour of a chronicler. His Iquique shows the old wooden corvette Esmeralda against the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar on 21 May 1879. Arturo Prat leapt aboard the enemy at the first ramming and was shot on her deck; after the third ram the Esmeralda went down with her flag still flying from the mizzen, the last part of her to sink. The defeat became part of Chile's collective memory, and these canvases helped fix it.
The real ship Esmeralda was a wooden corvette built in 1854. At Iquique on 21 May 1879 she was rammed three times by Huáscar and sank at 12.10 pm; Miguel Grau ordered the rescue of 57 Chilean survivors. Huáscar was captured by Chile off Punta de Angamos that October.
Sources artistasvisualeschilenos.cl · memoriachilena.gob.cl · Wikipedia
Image: Thomas Somerscales, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Battles 1815 to 1945 · Painting
HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales Named ship
The Sinking of HMS Hood, undated
Artist J. C. Schmitz-Westerholt
Source U.S. Army Center of Military History (courtesy of the U.S. Army Chief of Military History); reproduced as U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command photograph NH 50741-KN
Medium Painting
The Battle of the Denmark Strait, painted by J. C. Schmitz-Westerholt, shows the moment the Royal Navy lost its most famous ship. On 24 May 1941 Hood and the new battleship Prince of Wales were sent to intercept the German battleship Bismarck and the cruiser Prinz Eugen, and early in the action Hood was destroyed. For twenty years after her commissioning Hood had been the largest warship in the world, known as the Mighty Hood. The painter puts Prince of Wales in the foreground, while the Hood is lost behind her.
The real ship HMS Hood was the first of the planned four Admiral-class battlecruisers and the only one completed, commissioned in 1920 and known as 'the Mighty Hood'. She was sunk by Bismarck in the Denmark Strait on 24 May 1941, with Prince of Wales in company.
Sources Wikimedia Commons · Naval History and Heritage Command · Wikipedia
Image: J. C. Schmitz-Westerholt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons