ALGERINE CLASS MINESWEEPERS

Watercolour heightened with white, signed and inscribed “Minesweepers - Rough Sketch”. Not dated but believed to have been executed in 1944/45. It was decided in September 1940 that larger minesweepers with better sea-keeping qualities than the Bangor Class were required. A design was rapidly evolved which embodied all known minesweeping staff requirements and which would also be capable of acting as an anti-submarine escort vessel if required. Image size: 9 x 9.5ins (22.5 x 23.5cms) approx. Mounted 13 x 14ins (33 x 35.5cms) approx. Charles Eddows Turner was a war artist in the Second World War and was well known for his marine art and illustrations as well as his watercolours. He provided numerous illustrations for the broadsheet magazines of the day, his eye for detail and his service in the Fleet Air Arm giving him enviable credentials. Perhaps his best known picture is an oil painting of the battleship BISMARCK in her death throes, rolling sluggishly in the huge sea and burning heavily whilst DORSETSHIRE manoeuvres in the background as she prepares to put some torpedoes into the beautiful, but now doomed, battleship.