A view of Greenwich Hospital from almost due north, looking up Blackwall Reach. The tower of Trinity Hospital (almshouse) is on the left and the Trafalgar Tavern just east (left) of the Hospital complex. Greenwich itself is obscured by a sailing ship flying an indistinguishable flag at the main, apparently under tow downstream by a steam paddle tug, and the oil-seed Cumberland Mills (with smoking chimney), built about 1841, almost opposite the Hospital. The last remains of the Mills were demolished in the 1990s. A ketch-rigged Thames barge under full sail on a light westerly wind is in starboard-broadside view in the centre, with smaller sailing vessels around it and a pair of lightermen rowing a lighter with sweeps in the centre left foreground. Greenwich Park is to the left of the Hospital domes with the spire of the Catholic church of Our Lady Star of the Sea on Croom's Hill, far left.

The drawing is initialled and dated ' A.B 5/71' lower left and (possibly with elements of another drawing of the same scene, apparently under snow from the East Greenwich foreshore, PAF7683) is the basis of an etching by Ballin (PAD2259) entitled 'Greenwich, Vue prise de la Tamise'. In the print the tower of St Alfege is visible to the right of the tug, with the ship to the right pushed out of sight beyond the factory building, far right, and only its masts visible above. The print bears no date but was published by 'A. Cadart, Edit. Imp. Rue N[eu]ve des Mathurins, 58 Paris'.