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A one month pencil and scalpel
blade drawing working by naked eye only, of course.
Measurements of original and
print: 21.5 cm. x 12 cm.. Copyright 1998.
Price of Artist`s signed
conservation quality print
each : £60 inclusive.
Description
of Composition: The
‘Improved` ‘Southampton` class cruiser Belfast is shown
cruising at slow speed during the summer, around midnight, in the polar
latitudes of the Barents Sea in 1943. The picture is intended to show the
ship acting as part of an Arctic convoy cruiser covering force as, indeed,
she was many times during the latter part of the Second World War in seas
always subject to the most
extreme and extraordinary weather conditions. ‘The midnight sun…..'
Launched
in March 1938 and built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, this quite
superb looking 6” cruiser (sister ship to the ill-fated
Edinburgh
sunk in 1942) saw much active service throughout the Second World War –
in particular, on those notorious Arctic convoys to North Russia and in
the North Atlantic. All of this, too, having spent nearly three years in
extensive repair and improvement after hitting a magnetic mine in the
Firth of Forth in November 1939 having recently joined the 18th.
Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet.
Most
notably,
Belfast was Rear-Admiral Robert Burnett`s flagship at the
Battle of North Cape in December 1943 – the sinking of the
Scharnhorst
– her radars playing an invaluable role as did her guns, of course, too.
She also took
part in ‘Operation Tungsten`, the carrier-borne airstrike against
Tirpitz
in Altenfiord, North Norway, in April 1944.
In
June 1944, the ship was Flagship of Force ‘E` at Normandy, carrying out
much bombardment duty on shore targets in support of the Allied advance on
land. In 1950-52, she carried out similar bombardment duties off the coast
of Korea.
On
return from the Far East,
Belfast was taken in hand for an Extended
Refit and Modernisation at Devonport, Plymouth which lasted from 1956
until 1959, perhaps her most notable new feature being the enlarged bridge
superstructure. She was the Navy`s largest cruiser in the 1950s..
Following
subsequent service in the Far East again and later with the Home Fleet,
the ship was placed in the Reserve in 1963, being reclassified as a
Harbour Accommodation Ship.
Seemingly
facing the inevitability of being broken-up, very, very happily indeed,
Belfast was towed from Portsmouth to
the Pool of London in 1971, now owned by a newly formed Trust, where she
has remained as a quite awesome museum ship ‘open` to the public and
owned by The Imperial War Museum since 1978.
Along
with a wide variety of other Royal Navy warships during World War Two,
Belfast and
Ashanti were frequent visitors to
the relative sanctuary of Loch Ewe, in the Western Highlands of
Scotland. At this period, the large, sheltered Loch was used both
as a Fleet base and convoy assembly anchorage - and, in particular, by
those ships sailing on those notorious Arctic convoys to North
Russia. Information on Loch Ewe can be found at
www.highlandwelcome.co.uk
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