Cigarette card
Wills's Cigarettes
Category
Ephemera
Date
Unknown
Materials
Card
Measurements
35 mm (Width); 67 mm (Length)
Order this imageCollection
Mr Straw's House, Nottinghamshire
NT 742586.3
Summary
One of a set of mismatched cigarette cards wrapped in a piece of newspaper. Cigarette card, full colour image on the front of a battleship at sea during sunrise or sunset, with 'WILLS's CIGARETTES.' in the top right corner. On the back printed in blue ink on a white background; 'WILLS's CIGARETTES 3 THEWORLD'S DREADNOUGHTS British Battleship "BELLEROPHON." 18,600 tons. Commenced Dec., 1906. Completed Feb., 1909. Guns: 10-12 inch. 16-4 inch. 5 torpedo tubes. Armour: Belt 11in.-4in. Guns 12in.-8in. Speed: 21 knots, with 23,000 h.p. The Bellerophon has two sisters-the temeraire and the Superb. they are slight improvements on the origin- nal Dreadnought, from which the differ, in rig and secondary armament. W.D.&H.O.WILLS. BRISTOAL&LONDON. ISSUED BY THE IMPERIAL TOBACCO Co. (OF GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND)LTD.'. Printed vertically up each side; 'ALBUMS FOR THESE PICTURE CARDS CAN BE OBTAINED' 'AT 1\- EACH FROM ALL TOBACCONISTS.'. The ship is named after Bellerophon a hero of Greek mythology. He was "the greatest hero and slayer of monsters, alongside Cadmus and Perseus, before the days of Heracles", and his greatest feat was killing the Chimera, a monster that Homer depicted with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail: "her breath came out in terrible blasts of burning flame." Bellerophon was born at Corinth and was the son of the mortal Eurynome by either her husband Glaucus, or Poseidon. HMS Bellerophon was the lead ship of her class of three dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century and the third to be named after the Greek hero. She spent her whole career assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. Aside from participating in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive Action of 19 August, her service during the First World War generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. The ship was deemed obsolete after the war and was used as a training ship before she was placed in reserve. Bellerophon was sold for scrap in 1921 and broken up beginning the following year. Bellerophon took part in a test mobilisation and fleet review between 17 and 20 July 1914 as part of the British response to the July Crisis. The ship was en route for her scheduled refit at Gibraltar on 26 July when she was recalled to join the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow. She collided with the merchantman SS St Clair off the Orkneys the following day, but suffered little damage. In August, following the outbreak of the First World War, the Home Fleet was reorganised as the Grand Fleet, and placed under the command of Admiral John Jellicoe. In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the High Seas Fleet, composed of 16 dreadnoughts, 6 pre-dreadnoughts, and supporting ships, departed the Jade Bight early on the morning of 31 May. The fleet sailed in concert with Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's five battlecruisers. The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. In response the Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet, totalling some 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet. On 31 May, Bellerophon, now under the command of Captain Edward F. Bruen, was the fourteenth ship from the head of the battle line after deployment. During the first stage of the general engagement, the ship fired intermittently on the crippled light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden from 18:25, and may have engaged the German dreadnoughts during this time, but did not claim to have hit anything. At 19:17, the ship opened fire at the battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger and scored one hit that glanced off the conning tower. The only significant damage that the armour-piercing, capped (APC) shell caused was from a splinter that destroyed the rangefinder in 'B' turret.
Makers and roles
Wills's Cigarettes , manufacturer