'a horror of war': a study of the patrol gunboat 'kilchvan'
inscribed by the artist, as title, lower right. The ship was a double-ended 'kil'-class patrol gunboat built by cook, welton & gemmell ltd at beverley in yorkshire. She was laid down as their yard number 406, launched as 'kilchvan' on 13 april 1918 and completed on 29 november, just too late for war service. She was sold on 14 february 1920 to robinson, brown, joplin of newcastle and, converted to a merchant ship, was renamed 'belsay'. In 1922 she was renamed 'diskus' and became the 'scheldedam' in 1926. She sank on passage from antwerp to galway with cement on 15 march 1934. Wyllie appears to show he in battered first world war dazzle paint, despite the fact she never served actively as a patrol boat and his title can only refer to the strange shape of the ship: she was designed with two bridges, one being aft of the funnel, and her stern was the same shape as the bow. Some of her sister vessels had the mast abaft the funnel. [btodd/pvdm 1/13]. Date: circa 1919. Dimensions: 354 mm x 252 mm. Collection: Fine art.
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