HMS VICTORY IN DRY DOCK 1922

VICTORY was finally moved into Number 2 Dock, His Majesty’s Dockyard Portsmouth, on 12 January 1922 and the work of preservation and reversing many decades of neglect began. Wyllie had been a huge supporter of the scheme to preserve this great ship and was to produce many paintings and etchings of her both afloat and docked. Here we can assume that its early days in 1922 and the business of hoisting out fittings and furnishings for possible repair or replacement has begun: a spar appears to be on its way out and over the port side. In many senses this is perhaps an unfinished watercolour painting or maybe was to be used as a form of sketch for a later and more detailed painting. In any event it has the charm of WLW stamped all over it and is a picture that must always be closely associated with the ship, for the original, which was kindly made available by the Royal Navy to Maritime Prints & Originals for the purpose of this reproduction, hangs today just outside the cabin of the Commanding Officer of VICTORY.