A view of the Thames at low tide, at Wapping Wharf. The Thames Police tower stands on the right, next to a building marked “Wapping Wharf.” Thames police officers and their skiffs pulled up on the shore at Wapping Wharf. In 1839, ten years after the Metropolitan Police was formed, the Marine Police (established in 1798) became the Thames Division of the Metropolitan Police. The division's HQ has always been at Wapping River Police Station.

Born in Massachusetts, Whistler was not strictly a marine painter, but he did produce many views of the Thames. This print belongs to the set of prints, 'A Series of Sixteen Etchings on the Thames', produced by Whistler and published in 1871. He etched the plates for these prints after he moved to Wapping in 1859. He worked directly with his subjects and by doing so, succeeded in highlighting the existence of a working-class maritime community in the city of London. The etching is signed and dated ‘Whistler. 1859’, lower right.