A rather naive watercolour of Deptford Dockyard, seen from the 'River Thames', as inscribed in the foreground, and apparently by the same hand a PAH3219, of Woolwich Yard. Both came into being when Henry VIII, prime founder of the Royal Navy, saw them as a convenient places either side of the Palace of Greenwich for establishing shipbuilding and naval stores. The King's Yard at Deptford eventually, covered some 30 acres and contained two wet docks, three slips for naval vessels, workshops for the various craftsmen in wood and iron, two mast ponds, mast houses, timber sheds, quarters for the officers and machinery for spinning hemp. From the early 18th century the two Thames yards were important for building and repair of ships rather than as operating bases and the last ship launched at Deptford was the screw corvette 'Druid' on the 13March, 1869. In this view there are two ships, one large, in the double dry-dock on the left between the (surviving) Master Shipwright's house and the (demolished) mid-18th-century Great Storehouse though its clock turret survives on a modern tower about four miles down-river at Thamesmead. Two other ships are on building slips to the right (west) of the Storehouse, with small ones including royal yachts (which were based at Deptford) in the basins at far right. Smaller vessels on the river include a sheer-hulk at far left and a ketch-rigged yacht, possibly a bomb-vessel or designed in that form, at centre flying a red naval pennant. Timber sheds lie behind the basins to the right and Deptford town to left of the Master Shipwright's house. [PvdM 10/19]