The Fighting Temeraire is a painting made by the English painter William Turner. It was painted in 1839. The painting is painted with oil on a large canvas. It shows the English naval ship HMS Temeraire which is towed in the Thames and later on demolished. The painting can be seen in the National Gallery in London.
The Temeraire was one of the largest warships in the history of the Royal Navy. It was launched in 1798. It counted three floors, 98 guns and played, among other things, a crucial role in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, where Horatio Nelson’s flagship HMS Destroyed Victory and heralded the turnaround in the battle. In 1838, however, the ship was outdated and, after being served as a cargo ship for the last thirteen years, she was towed from Sheerness to the Thames to Rotherhithe for tens of kilometers to be demolished. This event was watched by many Britons, including Turner, who was very impressed with the scene. A year later he had recorded the event on canvas.
The Fighting Temeraire symbolizes not only the end of a grand ship, but also the end of the British domination at sea, in which the transition from sailing ships to steamships took place. Turner creates an idealized sense of melancholy, an image that is reinforced by the setting sun that casts a glittering shine over the water and the scorched tugboat that vomits a fiery steam cloud from its flue, which symbolizes a new era.
The painting also symbolizes with a white flag, visible on the canvas. The meaning behind this is that the ship is ready for demolition
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