Study of HMS 'Audacious', battleship, in dry-dock

Inscribed by the artist, 'Audacious', lower left. This ship was built at Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, 1911-13 (launched 1912). She was a ‘King George V’-class ‘super-dreadnought’, so-called because this class as well as the previous ‘Orion’ class were considerably larger and more powerfully armed (all-centre-line 13.5-inch guns) than the original group of British dreadnoughts. She was completed in August 1913 and assigned to the 1st Division of the 2nd Battle Squadron, but on 27 October the following year was sunk off the north-west coast of Ireland by mines laid by the German liner 'Berlin', which had been converted to an auxiliary minelayer. Wyllie's drawing - which is based on a photograph - can therefore probably be dated within a very narrow window of time from late 1813 to August 1914. Wyllie used it as a study for the leading ship in his painting 'Masters of the Seas' exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1915 and now in the museum's collection (BHC4167). PAF1831 and PAF1841 are a related drawings.

Object Details

ID: PAF1848
Collection: Fine art
Type: Drawing
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Wyllie, William Lionel
Vessels: Audacious (1912)
Date made: 1913-14; 1913-1914
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection
Measurements: Sheet: 289 x 456 mm