HMS Temeraire was a 98-gun Royal Navy ship of the line. Built at Chatham Dockyard and launched in 1798, she served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, mostly on blockades or convoy escort duties. She fought only one fleet action, the Battle of Trafalgar of 1805, in which she went into action immediately astern of Horatio Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory. During the battle, Temeraire came to the rescue of the beleaguered Victory and fought and captured two French ships, winning public renown in Britain.
This picture, titled The Fighting Temeraire, is an oil-on-canvas painting by J. M. W. Turner that depicts the ship being tugged to be broken up in 1838. Turner's painting achieved widespread critical acclaim and received accolades from the likes of John Ruskin and William Makepeace Thackeray. It hangs today in the National Gallery in London and was voted the nation's favourite painting in a poll organised by BBC Radio 4's Today programme in 2005.Painting credit: J. M. W. Turner