Signed by artist above his inscription, as title, both in pencil lower right. A view of the battleship 'Queen Elizabeth' in action in the Dardanelles between 19 February and 27 April 1915. In the background to the left is a 'Canopus'-class battleship - 'Albion', 'Canopus', 'Ocean' or 'Vengeance'. This is possibly the 'Queen Elizabeth's' indirect bombardment of Turkish forts on 8 March 1915, when she was covered by the 'Canopus' close inshore. Turkish return fire throws up shell splashes. Wyllie's title and placing of the ships to give predominance to the background landscape clearly signal his awareness of the location's ancient resonances in the history of warfare, not least because of the sensational rediscovery and excavation of the site of Homeric Troy by Heinrich Schliemann in the years before the First World War. The small sailing boat also hints at the contrast and link between ancient and modern.