01 Work, Marine Paintings - With Footnotes, #252

Thomas Jacques Somerscales

A bathing party, HMS. Clio, c. 1902

Oil on canvas

24 1/2 x 18 1/4in (62.3 x 46.5cm)

Private collection

HMS Clio was a Cadmus-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1903, saw active service in the Middle East during World War I, was briefly involved in the British campaign against the Mad Mullah and was sold at Bombay in 1920.

Clio started her career on the Australia Station, where she arrived in May 1904. In July she made an Island trip and visited Nouméa, Suva, Tonga. After visiting Mangain, Aitutaki, and other islands, the Clio proceeded to Tahiti. After blasting passages through the coral reefs at Savage Island and other islands she reached Auckland in September and stayed for two months in New Zealand waters. In February she finally returned to Sydney.

In 1908, the Clio transported British journalist Ernest Bethell from Chemulpo to Shanghai to serve a sentence of imprisonment for inciting Koreans to oppose Japanese rule of Korea. 

In late 1914 she transferred to the Middle East and was in Port Said by the beginning of January 1915. At the end of that month she moved into the Suez Canal and was active in the defence of the canal against Turkish troops. She was hit by two heavier shells, but suffered no casualties. She formed part of the British expeditionary force in the Shatt-al-Arab in April 1915, and in 1917 served in operations off Aden. At Dhubab in May. At Ibn Abbas landings were carried out to punish smuggling.

In December 1919, after commissioning at Gibraltar, she took part in the campaign against Mohammed Abdullah Hassan ("the Mad Mullah"). Sailors were landed, but by late February the campaign was complete

She was sold at Bombay on 12 November 1920. More on HMS Clio

Thomas Jacques Somerscales (born in Kingston upon Hull on 29 October 1842; died 27 June 1927) was an English marine painter. He is also considered a Chilean painter as he began his career there and many of his landscapes evoke the region.

His father was a shipmaster, who sketched, and his uncle was an amateur painter. However he had no formal training as an artist and originally became a teacher in the Royal Navy. He also traveled around the Pacific and while teaching in Valparaíso he started working as a professional painter. By 1893 he was still referred to as a "little known artist" but had gained some praise. More on Thomas Jacques Somerscales

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