Battleships
British Battleships were colossal symbols of power projection. Vast vessels into which Britain poured unimaginable quantities of money, materiel and manpower. Unfortunately, the supposed strength embodied by these behemoths proved utterly illusory. The battleship was rendered entirely redundant by the much cheaper to produce submarine and the advent of air power. As a result, all the exorbitantly expensive icons depicted in this series were sunk with an ignominious speed and relative ease that resulted in thousands of deaths and represented a profoundly shocking puncturing of British pretensions and prestige.