William Dring (1904-90) earned his reputation as a fine draughtsman and portrait painter whilst studying under Henry Tonks at the Slade School of Art between 1922 and 1925. He worked as a teacher of drawing and painting at the Southampton School of Art until 1940 when he was employed by the War Artist Advisory Committee, first as official war artist to the Admiralty and later to the Air Ministry. For the WAAC, he predominantly produced portrait drawings of individuals and groups, but also a few general maritime scenes.

Here Dring used both watercolour and pastel to make this drawing of the captain class frigate HMS ‘Bayntun’, depicted stationed in front of several warehouses. In the foreground a small tugboat is cut across the scene from the left hand side of the picture plane, a cloud of black smoke billowing out of the chimney. The sky is pale blue, scattered with white clouds, the entire scene is completed in light pastel colours aside from the striking black of the tugboat. ‘Wapping Liverpool’ is written on the tugboat suggesting that this scene is set in Wapping dock on the River Mersey. The pendant number K310 is visible on the hull of HMS Bayntun. The image is signed and dated at the bottom right hand corner, and is still in the original mount and frame from the War Artists Advisory committee. [The original WAAC number is LD. 3220]