[Plate IV, illustrating the poem] 'Our Fathers' [1913] by Captain Ronald A. Hopwood, RN

Bears plate number IV, bottom left, and is part of a set comprising PAF2157-PAF2161. The top illustration shows a seaplane (presumably intended as German from the context) searching for a submarine, the top of whose conning tower can just be seen in the sea to the right. Although small the image of a telegraphist sending a message below, under supervision of a standing officer, is an unusual subject. The battleship, centre left, is of the 'King George V' or 'Iron Duke' class and that to centre left is the 'Dreadnought' in stern view: these can be dated to 1913-14. A battle-practice target float is between these two images. The fleet scene at the bottom can also be dated to 1913-14, the battleships on the right being from the 'King George V' or 'Iron Duke' classes. For further information on the poem see PAF2157. The text on this final plate runs (with the 1916 punctuation):

Wherefore, when we've raced the seagulls, run submerged across the Bay,
When we've tapped a conversation fifteen hundred miles away,
When the gyros spin superbly, when we've done away with coals,
And the tanks are full of fuel, and the targets full of holes,

When the margin's full of safety, when the weakest in the fleet
Is a Hyper-Super-Dreadnought, when the squadrons are complete,
Let us pause awhile and ponder, in the light of days gone by,
With their strange old ships and weapons, what our Fathers did, and why.

Then if still we dare to argue that we're just as good as they,
We can seek the God of Battles on our knees, and humbly pray
That the work we leave behind us, when our earthly race is run,
May be half as well completed as our Fathers' work was done.

Object Details

ID: PAF2161
Collection: Fine art
Type: Print
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Dunthorne, Robert; Wyllie, William Lionel
Date made: circa 1917
People: Barrett, G. G.
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: Sheet: 368 x 256 mm; Mount: 315 x 212 mm
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