File:'H.M.S. Invincible May 31st 1916 - Jutland' RMG PU6324.tiff

Although the accompanying mount commemorates the ship's final and fateful engagement at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, this image partly records its pre-war appearance. 'Invincible' was the lead ship of her class of three, and the first battlecruiser to be built by any country in the world. Launched in 1907 her main armament comprised eight (4 x 2) 12-inch guns. She was refitted between March and August 1914, during which her secondary armament configuration was changed, with all 4-inch guns being removed from the turret tops, her torpedo nets removed, control tops were enlarged and topmasts reduced in size. In this drawing her guns are shown as fitted prior to the 1914 refit but her tops and masts are shown as post-refit, as also the case as regards the lack of torpedo nets. Her fore-funnel -here shown at the same height as the other - was raised during a refit at Gibraltar in February 1915. She was the oldest and slowest of the British battlecruisers at the first Battle of the Heligoland Bight and, with sister 'Inflexible' sank the armoured cruisers 'Scharnhorst' and 'Gneisenau' at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, almost without loss despite numerous hits by the German ships. She was flagship of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron during the Battle of Jutland, where she blew up from a magazine explosion after her 'Q' turret was penetrated by a German shell.

Nothing is known of the artist, W. J. Sutton, except that he painted British warships in watercolour, the ships shown dating from the mid-1890s to at least the early 1920s. His style is perhaps best described as that of a competent amateur, though it was probably for sale, and examples by him sometimes appear at auction. Given his subject he may have been based at one of the naval ports, such as Portsmouth or Plymouth, and mainly selling to naval personnel. This drawing is signed, lower right and in its original titled mount.