HMS 'Vindictive'

A watercolour study of the 'Vindictive', seen from off the port bow, as fitted out for the raid on Zeebrugge on 23 April 1918. It has been squared up witha ruled grid, probably for enlarging to a significantly bigger scale. See also PAF1863, which is a similar squared up study from almost the same viewpoint. This almost certainly indicates they were the preliminary drawings done in the 1920s - well after 'Vindictive' had been sunk as a blockship at Ostend - for Wylllie's oil painting of 'The Storming of Zeebrugge Mole, St George's Day, 23 April 1918', (exhibited at the Royal Academy,1931), now at HMS 'Excellent', the naval gunnery school at Whale Island, Portsmouth, which shows 'Vindictive from this viewpoint. In the top left is a pencil sketch of the large flotilla leader 'Swift' and, in the bottom right, one of a 'Faulknor'-class flotilla leader, probably intended to be the 'Broke', which served at Dover with the 'Swift'. Neither of these vessels were involved in the Zeebrugge raid. See also PAF1787.

Object Details

ID: PAF1864
Collection: Fine art
Type: Drawing
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Wyllie, William Lionel
Vessels: Vindictive (1897)
Date made: circa 1918; 1918/ 1920s
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection
Measurements: Sheet: 356 x 507 mm