The main subject towards the right of the picture is a dazzle-painted Royal Naval Auxiliary tanker seen in starboard-quarter view, turning in the River Thames off Greenwich. She is towing a small boat with two men alongside. The Royal Naval College, a dazzle-painted ship and a ketch-rigged Thames barge are to the far left. Between them and the tanker is a picket boat with a yellow funnel, at the east end of the Pier, with another camouflaged ship to its right and the Royal Observatory visible on the hill above. A red buoy is in the left foreground.

The picture was previously framed and retains an old card window mount, under which the artist's signature 'John Everett' is concealed. It is inscribed on the back ' 17 / oil Tanker off Greenwich' lower right, with this repeated above and the dates, 1914 - 1918.