An extensive series of tracings (approx. 350) comprising: capital and smaller ships of every type and class, mainly launched post 1900 [numerous sizes] and a coloured sketch of H.M.S. London annotated for Mitchell by Admiral Sir Colin Keppel in 1910; earlier warships of the nineteenth century, mostly post-Warrior types; an interesting group of vessels including merchant ships, royal yachts, submarines and various other unusual craft. Amongst the twentieth century ships are numerous foreign warships of the French, German, Japanese, Russian and U.S. Navies, the last group including the Massachusettts (marked "Cancelled - not used") and the North Dakota (the first U.S. 'Dreadnought'). Most tracings are numbered, titled and dated; additionally, many give either the names of the ships' captains who have presumably commissioned them, or the publications for which they were intended; a large number of the latter being for the Naval Annuals up to the 1914 issue.

These unmounted tracings were part of a large and hitherto unknown archive of W.F. Mitchell material sold by Miss C.A. Mitchell, the artist's great-niece, in Christie's Maritime Sale, 17th May 1990, lots 42-46, these examples being offered in lot 45.

William Frederick Mitchell (1845-1914) was born near Southampton, died at Ryde on the Isle of Wight, and lived all his life in close proximity to the Royal Navy's principal base at Portsmouth. Much of his work was commissioned by naval officers through Griffins, a bookshop on the Hard near the main dockyard gates, and with whom Mitchell had an arrangement for recommendations. He was a prolific artist, numbering all his portraits up to a figure in excess of 3,500. Working mainly in watercolour, all his paintings are characterised by the same meticulous attention to detail which, coupled with extreme accuracy, has left behind him a legacy of the greatest importance to all those interested in the history of the Royal Navy.