Fighting Temeraire by Joseph Turner, Maritime Art Postcard

The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up, 1838 (1839) by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851). A vintage travel and transportation Victorian fine art maritime painting. A nautical seascape at sunrise or sunset. This ship was one of the last second-rate ships of the line that played a unique role in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. HMS Temeraire, popularly known as 'Saucy Temeraire' or "Fighting Temeraire" amongst its crew, was a 98-gun ship. It retired in 1838. The painting shows the ship's last moments of existence post-retirement. In the picture, it is being towed in the river Thames, from Sheerness towards its final berth Rotherhithe, in 1838, to be broken up for scrap. Turner's configuration is quite bizarre such that the most important object, the old warship, is well placed to the left of the painting. Temeraire's grace is further augmented when compared to the contemporary steam propelled dirty black coloured tug.