THE SHIP ON THE COVER

The ship on the UK cover of my book The Quest for El Dorado, designed by Mia Butcher, is from an illustration entitled ‘The first shot against the Armada’ in Frederick Whymper’s The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism, published by Cassell & Company in four volumes in 1877-80. The scene shows Lord Howard’s Flagship Ark Royal just before she ‘thundered thick and furiously’ into the Spanish vice-admiral’s ship off Plymouth on 31 July 1588. Ark Royal had originally been Ark Ralegh, built for Sir Walter Ralegh at Deptford in 1587, acquired from him by Queen Elizabeth in repayment for debts and renamed Ark Royal when she became flagship of the Lord High Admiral shortly before the Spanish Armada set sail for England.

The illustrations in the book were by Whymper, a celebrated explorer of western Canada and an artist, and by several others including William Heysham Overend and Richard Caton Woodville. It is thought that this illustration was by Overend, a prolific marine artist whose obituary in the Army and Navy Gazette noted that ‘he was recognized as the foremost exponent of naval art, the only man who could at once satisfy his brother artists, the student of naval history, and the professional seaman . . . His knowledge of the detail of the old ships was unequalled, and his accuracy in matters naval, both archaeological and of the present day, was proverbial. Modest, unassuming, and amiable, no man was more cordially liked by his professional brethren, while the high appreciation in which he was held by those who cherish naval art and literature was shown by his election to the council of the Navy Records Society.’