THE FIGHTING TEMERAIRE

The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838 is an oil painting by the English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner. It was painted in 1838 and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839. The 98-gun ship HMS Temeraire was one of the lastsecond-rate ships of the line to have played a distinguished role in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The painting depicts HMS Temerairebeing towed by a paddle-wheel steam tug towards its final berth in Rotherhithe in south-east London in 1838 to be broken up for scrap. The painting hangs in the National Gallery, London, having been bequeathed to the nation by the artist in 1851.

In 2005 it was voted the nation's favourite painting in a poll organised by BBC Radio 4's Today programme.