Signed by the artist, lower right. The location shown is the Grand Fleet's northern base at Scapa Flow, beyond reasonable doubt in the summer of 1915. On the left is the battlecruiser 'Tiger' (1913). The other ships all appear to be battleships of the 'King Edward VII' class, which formed the 3rd Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet from 1914 to April 1916. Their main topmasts were removed (as shown here) in 1914-15 and they were transferred south to Sheerness in April 1916.

This tranquil sunset view of moored battleships reflects Wyllie's interest in depicting natural effects, and the influence of Turner. The ships, painted in Wyllie's characteristic reductive shorthand, are outlined against the summer sky at Scapa Flow, of which Wyllie wrote, 'it is impossible to give an idea of the vastness of the area or the multitude of the craft... In the midsummer days it was never really dark so far north...'. (W.D. Kirkpatrick, C. Owen and W.L. Wyllie, ‘More Seat Fights of the Great War' (London: Cassell & Company Ltd, 1919).