Inscribed by the artist, as title, and signed, lower right. It is almost certain that this scene was witnessed by Wyllie who was living nearby in the Tower House at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, and was heavily involved in the war effort through his work. In this watercolour he has provided sufficient information for the main elements to be identified.

The three airships are non-rigid submarine search airships of the SSZ class, which carried 110 lb bombs for attacking submarines. Seventy-seven of this class were built in 1917-18, and it is probable that airships that covered the Portsmouth area were based at Polegate in Surrey. Six of the class were assembled at Polegate: SSZ 6, SSZ 7, SSZ 8, SSZ 9, SSZ 10 and SSZ 19. Another eight were built at Wormwood Scrubs and transferred to Polegate on completion: SSZ 27, SSZ 28, SSZ 30, SSZ 39, SSZ 41, SSZ 43, SSZ 44 and SSZ 48.

In this watercolour the centre airship is SSZ 28, delivered to Polegate 17 February 1918 and deflated 29 January 1919. The one on the right is either SSZ 30 or SSZ 39. SSZ 30 was at Polegate from 27 February 1918 to 20 January 1919 and SSZ 39 was there from 7 June 1918 to November 1918. This makes 27 February 1918 the earliest possible date for the scene depicted by Wyllie.

Two of the three ships are salvage vessels. The central one has the typical horn bow and is possibly the Portsmouth-based ‘Steady’. The vessel on the right may be the ‘Ringdove’ (former sloop ‘Melita’ of 1888) but the one on the left is too indistinct to identify. Only two vessels were war casualties in the area: the drifter ‘New Dawn’ mined in the Needles Channel, 23 March 1918, and trawler ‘Lucknow’ mined off Portsmouth, 18 May 1917. Alternatively, it may be that the third vessel is involved in the salvage of a weather or marine loss, or that a hazardous old wreck is being cleared.