The British born, New York based artist Malcolm Morley was fascinated with military airplanes and naval ships following childhood memories of surviving the Blitz attack during World War II. He often recounted a traumatic childhood memory of when his balsa wood model of the battleship H.M.S. Nelson was obliterated by a German bomb during the Blitz. The bronze sculpture Navy (1989) depicts a naval ship at the top of a long, oval shaped pedestal, cast as one object in dark gray patina. Although reminiscent of the model toys Morley collected as a child and used as sources for his paintings later on, the weight of the object perhaps mirrors the extent to which these symbols stayed with Morley during his life, and is evocative of the perils that exist with military operations carried out over water.