(MP063). Frank Watson Wood (1862-1953). Watercolour signed and dated 1906.
Limited Edition: 150
Standard print size: 19.75 x 12.75ins (50 x 32cms) approx.
£40
Painted here when Atlantic Fleet Flagship of Vice Admiral Sir William May KCB. The KING EDWARDs, the last of the true pre-dreadnoughts, were regarded as perfectly proportioned, and their design was carefully calculated to give a balance and symmetry then unique amongst the profiles of armoured ships. Owing to an eccentricity of design in their underwater hull shape, however, they were strangely reluctant to steer straight and earned the sobriquet amongst the Fleet The Wobbly Eight. When launched by King Edward, she was, he stipulated, always to be employed as a flagship; on the one occasion when she was temporarily a private ship, she was mined, and she sank 25 miles NE of Cape Wrath on 6 January 1916.