A Sixth-Rate on the Stocks

The exact location of the shipyard in this painting is a longstanding puzzle but it is undoubtedly on the south bank of the Thames at Rotherhithe and probably just downstream of Cuckold's Point, indicated by the spit projecting on the right bearing a red ensign. A paling fence, far left, therefore probably fronts Rotherhithe Street and other buildings are likely to be concealed behind the ship shown on the stocks ready for launching. If this position is correct, the ownership of the yard when Cleveley painted it is not yet known. The dry-dock in the foreground is also not recorded either on Rocque's map of 1746 or Horwood's in the 1790s. This marks the ground as an unidentified plot with a projecting wharf immediately north of Randall & Brent's yard, with the buildings shown on the left corresponding with nos. 126-128 Rotherhithe Street. The apparently ill-maintained dock in the picture may by then have been filled in. The ship ready for launch has previously been identified as a 24-gun (sixth-rate) sloop of war but apparently missing the eight quarter-deck guns, which would make her a 32 (i.e. a small 5th rate). There is another small warship in dry-dock to the left under repair with only the lower masts standing. In the foreground to the right some tree trunks are piled ready for use for shipbuilding and behind them two figures sit on ready-sawn planks. In the right forergound there is a small capstan-powered crane overhanging the edge of the wharf. The inclusion of many figures informs the painting and the artist has chosen to include a variety of social types and activities at the dockyard. Several workmen can be seen working on scaffolding under the ship, and there are a number of figures on its deck. A small figure to the far right, which may be a child, appears to be balancing precariously on the rail, one hand on the ensign staff while the other waves a hat. A man to the left holds out his hand in a gesture of warning. Figures appear at all the upstairs windows of the building to the centre left, which may be the master shipwright's house. The sixth-rate is probably about to be launched and flies a Union jack at the bow, a naval pendant on a temporary midships flagmast and a red ensign at the stern.

John Cleveley's principal profession was as a shipwright in the Royal Dockyard at Deptford. He did not become a professional painter until the late 1740s. He was an early exhibitor at the Free Society of Artists in London and two of his three sons, John Cleveley the Younger and his twin brother, Robert Cleveley also became painters after working in Deptford's Royal Dockyard. The painting has been signed by the artist and is dated 1758.