Print, titled as above, from Dodd's 'Dockyard' set of six (1789-90). The subtitle states that 'This View was taken in May 1790, from abreast the Common Hard, looking up the Harbour.' Text then follows in two columns: 'This Yard in 1640 was of little note compared to its present greatness, at that time there was no Mast house, nor dry dock, nor above 100 Shipwrights, and but one team of horses, but so vast has been its encrease that at the present time that there is upwards of 400 [?] Shipwrights and to include other Artificers and Labourers it may be supposed nearly 1000 men are employed, and from the Magnitude of the Storehouses, Masthouse, Rope Yard and docks, it may be considered the first of the Royal Arsenals for equipping large [second column] Ships of War, but no more can be said of its consequence, than to remind that at this present day Octr 1st 1790, there is riding at Anchor in its Roadstead (Spithead) the grandest Naval Armament that ever prest the Ocean, or that ever was equipped by any single Nation in the World. [/] Publish'd Novr. : 1 1790, by J. & J. Boydell, Cheapside, & at the Shakespeare Gallery Pall Mall London.'

Dodd did two series of dockyard and seaport prints, easily confused in image terms. The early and slightly smaller unnumbered Royal Dockyard set was published by Boydell, comprising Blackwall (though not a Royal yard but see below) and Deptford (PAH9746) issued on 25 March 1789; Woolwich (PAH9725) and Chatham (PAH9714) on 29 October 1789; Plymouth (PAH9767) on 1 September 1790 and Portsmouth (PAH9742) on 1 November 1790. The larger numbered ones in a series called 'a Collection of the Sea Ports & of the River Thames' were published by Freeman on 4 June 1793: no.1 Greenwich (PAI7098 from his 1792 oil, BHC3867), no. 2 Limehouse (PAI7128), no. 3 a view of the river and shipping near the Tower of London (not in NMM: copy in BM), and no. 4 Dover (PAI7087).

While Blackwall was a civilian yard, it built many navy ships and Dodd's view of it (PAH9724), published with that of Deptford in March 1789, shows the launch of the 74-gun 'Bombay Castle', a warship built for the Navy as a gift of the East India Company. This, and to make a projected set of six rather than five, is presumably why it was included in the otherwise naval dockyard group. [PvdM 10/05, amended 1/16]