A tobacco box in the shape of a peaked cap. It is made of copper with a brass edge to the peak. The underside of the cap has a hinged lid, engraved with sprays of foliage and inscribed 'EMILY HMS GREENWICH DEC IST 1918'. On the top of the cap are placed the arms of Greenwich with 'HMS GREENWICH' on a scroll below (HMS 'Greenwich' was a depot ship).

The maker, James Walton Mowlam was born in Weymouth, Dorset in 1894. He was apprenticed as a fitter and turner at the Whitehead Torpedo Company at Wyke Regis, Dorset, then served in the Navy for a brief period from April 1918 to October 1919 after which he returned to Whitehead's, rising to a managerial position. The box was made between 17 June 1918 and 30 October 1919, during the time Mowlam was serving in HMS 'Greenwich'.