A view of the battle-cruiser 'Hood' (1918) with a submarine in the foreground. The clean white surface of the middle of the ocean contrasts sharply with the dark etching of the warship and submarine. Signed by artist.

This etching shows 'Hood' in 1925-26. Having been launched at the end of the First World War, she was sunk early in the Second, in May 1941 in the Denmark Strait, when a plunging shell from the German battleship 'Bismarck' went through her inadequate deck armour and exploded in a forward magazine: there were only three survivors. The submarine in the foreground is the 'X1', built in Chatham dockyard, launched on16 June 1923 and completed on 23 September 1925. After trials 'X1' served a commission in the Mediterranean, 1926-29, and paid off into reserve in 1930. On 26 June 1931 during dry docking in No. 15 dock at Portsmouth she fell over and her port side ballast tanks were badly damaged. After temporary repairs she was laid up and was broken up at Pembroke Dock from December 1936, having been fully operational for just three years. The destroyers in the sketch appear to be R Class ships. Other works by Wyllie in the collection which take HMS Hood as their subject are PAF0751, PAE3398, and PAE3194.

W. L. Wyllie (1851-1931) was a British Marine artist. Born in London, Wyllie painted, drew, and etched Thames scenes throughout his life. He moved to Portsmouth in 1907, where he continued working, supported the restoration of the Victory and painted the Trafalgar Panorama. Early in his career Wyllie was an illustrator for The Graphic, and he became a member of the Royal Academy in 1907.