Lot 48

William Edward Atkins
(British, 1842-1910)
H.M.S. 'Edgar' passing the old three-decker 'Duke of Wellington' as she leaves Portsmouth, April 1865 29.8 x 46.4cm. (11 3/4 x 18 1/4in.)

Marine Pictures

27 February 2007, 14:00 GMT

London, New Bond Street

£1,800 - £2,200

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William Edward Atkins (British, 1842-1910)

H.M.S. 'Edgar' passing the old three-decker 'Duke of Wellington' as she leaves Portsmouth, April 1865
signed 'W.E.Atkins' and dated 1865 (lower right)
watercolour heightened with white
29.8 x 46.4cm. (11 3/4 x 18 1/4in.)

Footnotes

“The superb Edgar” – as Captain (later Admiral Sir) Phipps Hornby often referred to her – was laid down at Woolwich in 1853 and launched on 23rd October 1858. One of the new generation of wooden-hulled steam-powered warships which bridged the gap between the ages of sail and steam, she was classed as a screw 2nd rate and mounted 91 guns of varying calibre. Measured by her builders at 3,074 tons, she was 230 feet in length with a 55 foot beam and sported a full ship-rig in addition to her Maudslay engines capable of 11½ knots.

Entering service in 1859, ‘Edgar’ first became Second Flagship to the Channel Fleet, followed by commissions in North America and the West Indies in 1862 and then the Mediterranean in 1863. Back in the Channel Fleet later the same year, she remained based at Portsmouth until 1866 when she was paid off for the last time and laid up in reserve. After her engines were removed in 1870, she was then loaned to the Customs Service which employed her as the quarantine ship on the Motherbank, at Spithead, where she remained until sold for breaking in 1904.

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