Stephen Bone (1904-58) was appointed official war artist by the War Artists Advisory Committee in 1943 after his father, Muirhead Bone, relinquished his post at the Admiralty. He was sent to sea to record war in the midst of the operations, serving on a variety of naval vessels until the end of the conflict.

Like his father, who had served as official war artist in both wars, Stephen Bone was an accomplished draughtsman. His wartime drawings were regularly reproduced in ‘The Illustrated London News’. One of many depictions of activity below deck, this scene evokes the close association between machine and crew. The wide-angle view and the small figures lost in an environment of pipes, manoeuvring valves and pressure gauges, suggest the vastness of the battleship.