Inscribed, as title, and signed by artist, lower right, this watercolour shows the 'Portia' in her First World War naval role as an armed patrol yacht leaving Portsmouth Harbour, with a three-stacker L-class destroyer on the same course between her and Camper & Nicholson's yard at Gosport on the left. HMS 'Victory' is in stern view on the right at her usual mooring off the Clarence Victualling Yard. The 'Portia' was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead in 1906 and was hired into Admiralty service on 8 October 1914. She was renamed 'Portia II' in December 1915 to release the name for a destroyer and was returned to her pre-war owner on 1 April 1919. The date of this image is 1914-15.