The Cruiser Belfast

A complete anatomy of a ship in words, photographs and drawings. HMS Belfast was the largest British cruiser of WWII, and served later in Korea.

In 1981, after service with the Royal Navy, Ross Watton attended art college and began work on a large cutaway illustration of HMS Belfast, which is still on display on the ship. He also started writing his first book for Conway, about the preserved cruiser, in the Anatomy of the Ship series. During the next four years, he wrote three more titles for the series and illustrated many of the covers for the others. His work as a freelance illustrator has enabled him to tackle a wide variety of subjects and the results have featured in many books and on hundreds of postage stamps. More recently, he has been responsible for producing the 3D ship cutaway illustrations for the Navy News. He has also launched his own website to showcase his new maritime paintings.