The Battle of Trafalgar by Robert Taylor.
Robert Taylors
magnificent painting shows Victory breaking through the enemy line at
1.00pm 21st October 1805. A broadside has crippled Admiral Villeneuves
French flagship Bucentaure, seen off Victorys port side, while Nelsons
gunners fire a second broadside into the Santisima Trinidad. Just
astern, the Temeraire manoeuvres to trap the Redoubtable between herself
and Victory, and thus seal her fate.
Night Attack on the Newcastle by Robert Taylor.
During the night of 14/15th June 1942 German E-Boats of the 3rd
Flotilla left their base at Derna to intercept an Allied convoy bund for
Malta. Before 04.00, under the command of Leutnant Seigfried Wuppermann,
the motor torpedo boat S-56 slipped past two Royal Navy escort
destroyers to make her attack on HMS Newcastle. Alerted to the incoming
attack a searchlight on Newcastle switched on illuminating S-56.
Wuppermann fired two torpedoes and turned hard to starboard to make his
escape. A second searchlight pin-pointed S-56but it was too late. Signatures: Sir Henry Leach
GCB, DL; John Baber RNVR; Wilfred
Marriott RN; Arthur Deakin RN and Rupert Stant RN.
HMS Illustrious by Robert Taylor. Royal Navy carrier Illustrious in Grand
Harbour, Malta. signed by 3
naval fighter aces. Billy Drake DSO, DFC, Mike Crosley DSC, Peter Twiss
OBE DSC
Secret Operation by Robert Taylor. This print captures the menacing beauty of a submarine on the
surface: S-Class type HMS Sceptre slips her moorings in Scapa Flow,
Scotland, and glides quietly into the North Sea to begin another top
secret underwater operation. On the conning tower the skipper takes a
final look across the water to the distant highlands while the crew
savour the fresh salt air knowing soon they will submerge into their
eerie, silent, artificial world, beneath the waves.
Sea King Rescue by Robert Taylor. HRH Prince Andrew lifts off survivors from stricken ship Atlantic
Conveyor - Falklands War. Signatories: Ralph Wykes-Sneyd.
D-Day Normandy Landings by
Robert Taylor. Commemorating D-Day, June 6th 1944 when no less than
4000 ships landed 133,000 troops on the beaches of Normandy.
Contact Bearing 190 by Robert Taylor.
H.M.S. Kelly steams at full speed
to intercept a U-Boat which is bearing down on an essential and otherwise
vulnerable Allied supply convoy. The tension among the supply ships crews,
tempered by the strong faith in their protectors, is almost tangible.
HMS Kelly by Robert Taylor.
HMS Kelly leaving the Grand
Harbour, Malta in 1941 with HMS
Warspite in the background. HMS Kellys captain was Lord Mountbatten.
HMS Belfast by Robert Taylor.
Shown with the British fleet in Scapa Flow early in the war. Signatories:
Admiral Sir Freddy Parham.
Spitfire Clipper by Robert Taylor.
Tea carried down the Min River from the plantations on Chinese
junks, is loaded aboard the American clipper Spitfire in Pagoda Anchorage,
Foochow, October 1857. In this busy port scene a steam tug approaches,
indicating the Clipper is almost ready to sail for London, a voyage that
she will complete in 113 days. Roberts exquisite rendition is now
available as a limited edition print.
Hornblower and the Indefatigable by Robert Taylor.
Winter in the Bay of Biscay brings ferocious gales, mountainous seas
and bitter cold discomfort for ships' crews. Early in his assignment
aboard the British Navy frigate Indefatigable, Horatio Hornblower, C.S.
Forrester's dashing eighteenth-century naval officer, experienced the
worst of conditions at sea while serving the arduous task of blockading
the ports off the west coast of France. The excitement of the battle came
as welcome relief. The painting depicts an exchange of cannon fire between Indefatigable -
on the left - and a 40 gun French frigate attempting to run the blockade
on a chill winter's morning. Moments later the two hulls crashed alongside
each other, and the Frenchman was boarded and taken.
Flying Cloud by Robert Taylor.
American clipper, en route to load tea, arriving at Hong Kong, May
1860, 97 days out of London. En Route to Foochow, she will load tea for
the return voyage. Of all the American clippers, the Flying Cloud had by
far the most impressive record. During two short decades in the
mid-nineteenth century, the sea's great trading routes were dominated by a
new and spectacular design of craft. Slim-hulled ships with towering
masts and great billowing clouds of sail, they were the culmination of the
Yankee's obsession with speed. In their brief but golden era they
reigned supreme, were marvelled at by people the world over, and created a
legend in maritime folklore. They were the mighty American
Clippers. Never before had ships stirred the hearts of
seafarers quite the way these magnificent wooden ships did, with their
long, lean lines, sharp bows, raked masts and massive spreads of canvas
that drove them relentlessly through the wind swept seas with breathtaking
speed. In a single generation they came and went. But during
their brief time they represented the zenith of the age of sail and have
fired the imagination of marine painters ever since. Robert Taylor's compelling work, capturing
all the hustle and bustle of a Far Eastern port at the height of the tea
trade, is now reproduced as a spectacular limited edition print.
Loch Etive by Robert Taylor.
The windjammer Loch Etive departs Glasgow on October 15, 1892, bound
for Sydney, Australia. After a round-trip lasting six and a half months,
she will return to London with a cargo of wool. Looking across the Firth
towards Glasgow the waters are busy with coastal craft.
Barque Glenogil off Liverpool Pierhead, 1900 by Robert Taylor.
The four-masted barque Glenogil passes Liverpool pierhead as she is
towed up the Mersey. Paddle steamers in the foreground are seen embarking
passengers for the river crossing in this busy harbour scene.
Farewell America by Robert Taylor.
The Queen Mary sails majestically past the Statue of Liberty as she
departs from New York, bound for Europe, early post war. Signatories: Captain Treasure Jones, last captain of the Queen Mary.
Titanic by Robert Taylor.
Though she never completed her maiden voyage, the RMS Titanic is
arguably the most famous ship that ever sailed, Since that fateful
night of April 15th, 1912, when the new flagship of the White Star Line
struck an iceberg in the cold waters of the North Atlantic, the tragic
legend of the Titanic has never ceased to fascinate generation upon
generation. As she glided majestically down the Solent towards the
open sea, carrying passengers for the first time, no one doubted she would
dominate the north Atlantic routes to the New World. She was the
grandest ship afloat; no ocean liner was more opulent, no ship was more
powerful; she was unsinkable. The passage of time has done little to
dim the memory of the tragic events that surrounded the Titanic disaster,
and with constant reminders from film, TV, and books galore, interest in
the ship has never been greater. To many she was the greatest ship
ever built. Her life was short yet magnificent; her epitaph: She is
the ship that never died. Passengers aboard the Isle of Wight ferry are treated to the unique
spectacle of the world's newest, most gracious steamship as she sets out
on her maiden voyage, April 1912
Chance Encounter by Robert Taylor.
A Dornier 24 flying boat of the Royal Netherlands navy
sights the Japanese invasion fleet off Kuching, British Borneo, 23rd December
1941. By Chance it also sighted patrolling Dutch Submarine K-XIV on the
surface, unaware of the enemy position. receiving the pilots signal
"enemy to the north east" the submarine quickly engaged
sinking two ships and damaging two in one of the first allied successes
against the Japanese in World war two. Print serial number DHM2129. Signatures: Paul
Kommer, Gerardus van Schooten, Julius van Nieuwenhuizen, Hendrik van den
Ende, Eelke Scholte.
Attack on the Hei by Robert Taylor.
Signatories: Joe Foss, William Freeman, Boot
Furlow, Roger Haberman..