Lot 846: George Cochrane Kerr (1825-1907)

George Cochrane Kerr (1825-1907)
The 1st class torpedo boat TB-80 on night manoeuvres with the fleet
signed twice 'G.C.Kerr' (lower left)
oil on canvas
34¼ x 67 in. (87 x 170.2 cm.)

VAT rate of 15% is payable on hammer price plus buyer''s premium.
The idea of small, fast torpedo boats was conceived in the 1870s but quickly followed by the realisation that a similar class of vessel would be needed to neutralise them. Thus, by the mid-1880s, naval thinking had divided torpedo boats into two classes, the 2nd class of which would harry the enemy fleet whilst the 1st class would act as their deterrent; the theory seemed elementary but, in practice, it was flawed since the 1st class boats, known as "catchers", simply did not have the speed to carry out their role successfully. After seven years of trial and error, it was eventually concluded that a totally new type of boat was required and herein lay the genesis of the modern 'destroyer', the very first of which - H.M.S. Havock - was launched in 1894. In the meantime however, large numbers of both 1st and 2nd class torpedo boats had been designed and introduced into the fleet, one of which proved markedly more successful than her contemporaries. She was TB-80, built by Yarrows at Poplar, on London's Isle of Dogs, in 1886-7 to the same design as another which her builder had produced for the Austrian Navy. Displacing 105 tons and measuring 135 feet in length with a 14 foot beam, she was the first British TB to be fitted with the so-called 'turtle back' bow which made for much greater seaworthiness than her predecessors. She could make an extraordinary 23 knots at full steam and was armed with 3-3pdr. guns, including one immediately in front of her single funnel, in addition to torpedo tubes on both her bow and main deck. Re-boilered in 1898, when her original single funnel was replaced by two, she was soon overtaken by technological advance but nevertheless survived to serve as a patrol craft throughout the Great War only to be scrapped in 1921.

This superbly atmospheric picture of her when she was still in her prime is a tour de force by George Cochrane Kerr. The manner in which the searchlight picks out her superstructure, along with the flame-filled smoke belching from her funnel indicating that her stokers are straining to maintain her speed, are both painted with a masterly accomplishment and this work projects an awesome sense of naval power to all who gaze upon it.