It is believed that this painting was commissioned by the Mitchell Engineering Co. in the late 1950's when that company was trying to promote the idea of large nuclear-powered submarine tankers capable of refuelling ships at sea. Obviously prompted by the success of the U.S.S. Nautilus, the world's first nuclear submarine, Mitchell's were also interested in similar nuclear bulk ore carriers which could sail beneath the polar ice-cap, another of Nautilus's feats (in 1958). It seems likely that Wilkinson used Mitchell's own drawings when executing the painting, but the project got no further probably because of the Navy's view that the theory of nuclear-powered tankers was fundamentally unsound. The distinguishing marks on the vesse's hull almost certainly indicate 'Mitchell Nuclear Submarine No. 1' although within Mitchell's itself, she was always referred to as "Moby Dick".