Shipbuilding on the Thames at Redriff

(Updated May 2013) A scene on south bank of the Thames at Rotherhithe, looking east towards St Anne's church, Limehouse. Two ships are shown on the right, flying the red ensign. Both are, by type, merchant vessels. That on the left, on the stocks ready for launching, appears to be a naval transport flying a naval pennant from her central flagstaff and a white St George's jack. The other, refitting in dry-dock, bears the name 'Prince George, London' on her stern and has been identified as a West Indiaman built in 1789. A pile of timber is on the wharf between these two with a Dutch flag prominent on a quayside hoist. To far right is the stern of a ship alongside the wharf, with her rig struck down to her lower masts. On the left of the vessel ready for launch stands the near-complete frame of another. In the right background, in starboard broadside view, is another merchant vessel with only her lower masts standing, aslant across the inland end of the dry-dock holding the 'Prince George'. Houses along Rotherhithe Street lie beyond and on the left of the skeletal ship is a low building with a red-tiled roof and timber stacked in front, on which figures are seated - mainly women and children - suggesting a day of leisure. Two merchant ships are moored off the point, in stern view the one on the left bearing a name beginning 'British...', with the masts of a third visible beyond in the Globe Dock. Others lie in the river, far left, with a cutter tacking upstream. In the foreground on the right a couple sit in a Thames skiff being used as a water taxi. In the centre a Dutch trading dogger is coming upstream: the male passenger in the skiff gestures towards her and his oarsman turns his head to look. Although Dutch craft often appear in English paintings, this one and the flag on the quay suggest the artist is intentionally making a strong Dutch connection. The picture, painted in 1792, may mark a contemporary event of Dutch or Anglo/Dutch significance such as the 100th anniversary of the Anglo-Dutch defeat of the French at the Battle of La Hogue in 1692. The prominence of the man gesturing in the skiff may also indicate he has a commercial interest in the shipyard shown, which was previously thought to be Quallet's at Pitcher's Point . However, this had gone by 1792 and at this time the ground shown comprised the King and Queen Yard (from water stairs so named, off right) of Peter Everitt Mestaer, a prosperous shipbuilder and owner who lived at Oak House, Wanstead, and New Broad Street in the City of London. There is so far no evidence (including Mestaer's will) that his roots were Dutch but his name and the Dutch elements here raise that possibility. In the early 18th century, ribbon development along the Thames linked Deptford to Rotherhithe and London. Daniel Defoe commented in 1724 that 'the docks and building yards on the riverside between the town of Deptford and the street of Redriff or Rotherhithe are effectually joined and building daily increased', but there is little human activity included here.

Whitcombe, the artist, was born in London in about 1752 and painted ship portraits, battle scenes, harbour views and ships in storms. Although his output was vast, little is known about him. He produced a large number of subjects from the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793-1815, and exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1783 and 1824. His depiction of ships implies specific knowledge of life at sea, although he probably spent most of his career in London. Many of his works were engraved and they included 50 plates to James Jenkins's account of 'The Naval Achievements of Great Britain', published in 1817. The painting is signed and dated in the lower left corner, 'Thos. Whitcombe 1792'. (The Museum is grateful to Stuart Rankin for help in accurately identifying the subject here in March 2012; the 'Prince George's' identity as a West Indiaman was confirmed by Tony Fuller.)