Alistair Laird
Department Director
Lot 123
Derek George Montague Gardner(British, 1914-2007)Heavy ships in the Fleet anchorage at Scapa Flow, March 1940
13 September 2011, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £4,375 inc. premium
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Derek George Montague Gardner (British, 1914-2007)
Heavy ships in the Fleet anchorage at Scapa Flow, March 1940
signed 'Derek G.M. Gardner' (lower right)
oil on board
24.8 x 59cm (9 3/4 x 23 1/4in).
signed 'Derek G.M. Gardner' (lower right)
oil on board
24.8 x 59cm (9 3/4 x 23 1/4in).
Footnotes
EXHIBITED:
London, David Messum Fine Art, Nelson's Ships, a Trafalgar Tribute, 2005, p.123, illustrated.
Scapa Flow, the principal battlefleet anchorage of the Royal Navy in the twentieth century, is a vast expanse of sheltered water in the Orkney Isles located across the Pentland Firth, off the north-eastern tip of Scotland. Surrounded and protected by the off-lying islands of Hoy, Flotta, South Ronaldsay and Burray, the principal entrance is from the south, through the Hoxa Sound, although there are additional entrances on both the east (into the North Sea) and the west (into the Atlantic). Broadly 8 miles in width and about 15 miles long, north to south, the spacious waters of Scapa had frequently hosted peacetime exercises long before 1914 and had already been selected as the main base for the fleet in time of war. Accordingly, when War was declared on 4th August 1914, the aptly-named Grand Fleet was lying in Scapa Flow with steam up and awaiting orders to move into the North Sea. Likewise, when the Second World War began on 3rd September 1939, the rechristened Home Fleet was equally ready and Scapa Flow immediately resumed its crucial importance to British naval strategy.
In this wonderfully atmospheric panorama of the anchorage, Derek Gardner chose to portray five of the nation's greatest capital ships in March 1940, before the war at sea began to decimate the fleet in earnest. From left to right, the vessels shown are the battlecruiser Renown (launched 1916, survived both World Wars, scrapped 1948), the battleship Rodney, flagship of the Commander-in-Chief (launched 1925, scrapped 1948), the battlecruiser Repulse (launched 1916, sunk off Malaya 1941), the celebrated battlecruiser Hood (launched 1918, sunk by the Bismarck 1941) and the battleship Valiant (launched 1914, scrapped 1948).