HMS 'Broke' and 'Swift' (TBC) RMG PW0923, William Lionel Wyllie

HMS 'Broke' and 'Swift' [TBC]
Inscribed by the artist lower left 'April 5th', which remains to be explained if the received title is correct since this refers to an incident that began just after midnight on 21 April 1917, when the British flotilla leaders 'Swift' (1907) and 'Broke' (1914) intercepted six German destroyers in the Strait of Dover and brought them to action. Two German ships were sunk, the 'G85' by gunfire and a torpedo and the 'G42' by gunfire and ramming. In this drawing the 'Broke' has rammed the 'G42' amidships on the port side. Many of the German sailors tried to clamber onto the forecastle of the 'Broke' but were repelled by seamen and stokers armed with rifles and cutlasses. The 'Broke' suffered 21 killed and 36 wounded in the action and was towed back to Dover with 140 German prisoners on board. Both of the German ships were built in 1915. The 'Broke' was building by J. Samuel White at Cowes as the Chilean 'Almirante Goni', launched on 25 May 1914, when she was purchased by the Admiralty in August 1914 and completed that November. After the war she was sold back to Chile and renamed 'Almirante Uribe'.