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

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.

Object Details

ID: PAE0006
Collection: Fine art
Type: Drawing
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Wyllie, William Lionel
Places: River Clyde
Date made: circa 1898
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection
Measurements: 252 mm x 353 mm
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