This fluent watercolour bears the inscription in the lower left-hand corner 'Nov 17 1917', but was possibly not written by Wyllie. However, it may indicate that the action depicted between British and German ships is the one that took place on that date between light-cruisers in the Heligoland Bight when one German minesweeper was sunk. This is an example of Wyllie working 'in the wet'. He worked on wet paper attached to a pinboard and frame, the holes of which are here visible along the lower edge of the paper.