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'Huns on the Clyde': a visiting German squadron led by the battleship 'Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm', 1898

© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London | CC BY-NC-ND

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Date

ca.1898

Artist

William Lionel Wyllie (1851-1931)

Collection

Royal Museums Greenwich

Image Link

https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-114156

Description

Inscribed, lower right, as title. An unfinished watercolour wash study, of four German ships arriving, with another smaller warship beyond against the land. On Thursday, 12 May 1898, the German battleships 'Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm' (1891), 'Brandenburg' (1891), 'Weissenburg' (1891) and 'Wörth' (1892) and the cruiser/despatch vessel 'Hela' (1895) arrived off Greenock on the Clyde from Queenstown (now Cobh, Ireland). They sailed for Kirkwall on Tuesday 17 May 1898. The four battleships are sailing in the order given above with the flagship 'Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm' leading. The 'Hela' is presumably the smaller vessel beyond.The now rather offensive title is interesting in demonstrating the anti-German feeling of the period well before the First World War, during the naval arms race of the 1890s that was one of its harbingers - though one cannot now know when Wyllie wrote it.

Image Licence

CC BY-NC-ND

Image Credit

© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

Location

River Clyde, Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland

Country

Medium

Tags

Ships
Seascapes

Category

Travel & Transport

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© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform