'A Monitor in the Mediterranean' RMG PW0899, William Lionel Wyllie

'A Monitor in the Mediterranean'
Inscribed , as title, in pencil by the artist and signed below that in black ink or watercolour, lower left. This drawing was reproduced (in black and white), with the title above, in Wyllie's co-authored book 'More Sea Fights of the Great War' (1919), f. p. 44. The ship is a 'Lord Clive'-class monitor and only two of them served in the Mediterranean, the 'Earl of Peterborough' and the 'Sir Thomas Picton' (both of 1915). The 'Earl of Peterborough' arrived at Mudros (on the Greek northern Aegean island of Lemnos) on 13 November 1915 and the 'Sir Thomas Picton' on 15 December. Both then moved to serve in the Adriatic throughout 1917 and 1918. This may be the 'Sir Thomas Picton': she was given a 6- inch gun on the port side amidships and this may be the red feature on this drawing. The smaller red feature on the starboard side is where the 12-pounder gun was sited. The ship is shown at anchor of a coastline, with a local schooner under the land to the right. The location shown in this finely finished and atmospheric watercolour is not specific, but perhaps more likely to be in the Aegean rather than the Adriatic.