With his vigorous style, a sense of drama and an accurate eye for historical detail, Derek Gardner was among the most durably popular of contemporary marine artists.

His forte was the ships of the Napoleonic wars period, particularly those in which Nelson had served. And the sense of action with which he was able to imbue his battle scenes owed not a little to his service with RNVR during the Second World War, and seen plenty of action.

His sense of the drama of naval conflict was seen to best advantage in London in October 2005 on the occasion of the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar, when Messum’s, of Cork Street staged an exhibition of his work, Nelson’s Ships: A Trafalgar Tribute. This and the accompanying book of the same title, featured oil and watercol-our illustrations of all the ships in which Nelson had served, from his first going to sea in January 1771 in the third-rate Raisonnable, commanded by his maternal uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling, to his death on board the Victory at Trafalgar on October 21, 1805.

Besides his line-of-battle ships and seafights, Gardner was also noted for portraying the graceful clipper sailing vessels of a later era, characteristic among such studies being The “Clan Mackenzie” running under full sail. The age of steam also featured in his canvases, ranging from the pride of the Grand Fleet in First World War years to cargo shipping in the Thames in the 1950s.

Derek George Montague Gardner was born on the eve of the First World War in 1914. His father, who was then docks engineer for the Great Central Railway in Grimsby, became in 1928 chief engineer of the Port of Glasgow, and as a teenage boy Gardner drank in the atmosphere of Clydeside. At Oundle he won the school prize for drawing.

On leaving school he followed in his father’s footsteps and trained as an engineer. By 1938 he was assistant docks engineer at North Shields. In the meantime he had joined the RNVR and in August 1939 was called up. After a period on routine maintainance at Scapa Flow he was sent to the destroyer Broke and took part in convoy escort duties.

For the Anglo-American “Torch” landings in Vichy French North Africa, Broke and the destroyer Malcolm were ordered to make a frontal attack on Algiers harbour, seize the port installations and shipping, and land the American troops they were carrying. Mal-colm was hit by the French shore batteries and had to withdraw. But, though under heavy fire, Broke charged the harbour boom at 25 knots and crashed through it to berth successfully alongside and disembark her troops.

She was now a sitting duck for French batteries herself, and once the troops were ashore her captain decided he must get her out of the harbour. In doing so Broke took many hits and eventually sank while on passage to Gibraltar. Her survivors were rescued by the destroyer Zetland.

Gardner was mentioned in dispatches for his part in the taking of Algiers. But in the process he had also lost the hearing in one ear, his eardrums damaged by the concussion waves from shellbursts. After a further tour in the destroyer Highlander on Atlantic convoys, he was forced to come ashore as a result of his deafness.

For the rest of the war in Europe he served on the staff of the C-in-C Western Approaches, before going to Colombo as Assistant Chief Staff Officer Ceylon. He was demobbed in 1946 in the rank of acting commander.

Joining the Colonial Service, he was posted to Kenya in 1951, being appointed regional engineer for the western part of the country. During his naval service he had done many water-colour sketches of warships, and he now recorded the countryside around Lake Victoria.

But a bout of tick typhus rendered him completely deaf and in 1963 he was compelled to leave the Colonial Service and return to England. Retiring to Dorset this self-taught artist now made a living from painting both landscapes and naval scenes. In due course his reputation from shows and sales enabled him to enlarge his studio, and his work made him known to London galleries. He was over 90 at the time of his Messum’s Trafalgar bicentenary triumph.

Gardner held the RNVR Reserve Officers Decoration (VRD) and was elected a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. He was also a Fellow of the Institute of Civil Engineers.

He is survived by his wife, Mary, and by a daughter and son.

Derek Gardner, VRD, marine artist, was born on February 13, 1914. He died on February 11, 2007, aged 92