Medium includes graphite. To the left 'Victory' and probably an Admiralty yacht are also dressed overall, with the former saluting. The large ship at right is either arriving or leaving, attended by tugs, also dressed and with a white/red flag at the masthead. It also has a stern walk and black topped funnels. These combinations are found in one class of Russian battleships: 'Peresviet' (1898), 'Osliabia' (1898) and 'Pobieda' (1900). Of these three ships, only the 'Pobieda' is known to have visited Portsmouth and that was in 1902. All three were involved in the Russo-Japanese War where two were sunk at Port Arthur and one was sunk at Tsushima in 1905. The two sunk at Port Arthur included the 'Pobieda' which was raised, repaired and became the 'Suwo' in the Japanese navy until broken up in 1922. If this drawing does show 'Pobieda' Wyllie probably did it while a visitor at Portsmouth in 1902 since he only moved there is 1906. If the identification is wrong it could be up to late 1921, when Victory was de-rigged prior to going into its permanent dry-dock. [BT/PvdM 9/20]



If this is the visit of Pobieda to Portsmouth then Wyllie must have visited in 1902 or used a photograph or some other visual reference to produce the drawing after he took up residence.