Warm Work by Ivan Berryman [Print]

Warm Work

The time is approximately 12.20pm on 21st October 1805. HMS Victory forces her way through the combined Spanish and French line, firing all her larboard guns into the stern of Admiral Villeneuve’s flagship. Bucentaure was utterly destroyed by the initial salvo with twenty of her guns smashed off their mounts and over 300 of her crew left dead or disabled. But Victory herself had suffered much during the perilous approach to the enemy fleet. Unable to bring any guns to bear, she received multiple hits from the Franco-Spanish ships, bringing down her mizzen top, her fore topgallant mast, her studding sails and smashing the ship’s wheel. The bowsprit, part of her figurehead and catheads were shattered, her anchors carried away and the entire bow, headrails and beakhead were peppered with shot. The title of the painting refers to a comment made by Admiral Horatio Nelson as HMS Victory began to receive fire from the enemy. A piece of hot shrapnel tore the buckle off Nelson’s shoe as he paced the deck with Captain Hardy, to which he responded, “It is warm work today!” Sadly, just one hour later, Nelson was fatally wounded by a sharpshooter stationed on the mizzen top of the French Redoutable which can be seen to the left of the painting. The towering spectre of HMS Temeraire looms in the gunsmoke as she follows HMS Victory into the fray.