A swim-head barge, on the right, is heading downriver in a stiff south-westerly breeze, probably at the top of the tide, with the hull of an unrigged sailing vessel being towed upriver beyond. Two boats in the left foreground, with red-clad crews, may be racing upriver. The ship moored in the left distance is the training vessel 'Arrow', attached to the Royal Naval College for about 20 years following its move to Greenwich in 1873. The College (formerly Greenwich Hospital) lies beyond.