On the left of the picture, the ship shown in starboard broadside is being launched. It is thought to be the fifth rate, 'Adventure', 44 guns, wearing (from bow to stern) a Union Jack, the Admiralty flag, a royal standard, a Union flag and a white ensign. 'Adventure' was launched on 17 July 1784 and to her right, in the river, a group of small boats centres round what is probably the barge of the Navy Board, with its officers watching the event. The ship on the extreme left, with a covered barge under its bow, is probably the 'Venerable', 74 guns, which had been launched in April 1784. The first and third ships from the right, on the stocks, are two merchantmen, the others warships. Ships had been built at Blackwall since the Middle Ages but it was when it became the East India Company's yard in the early years of the seventeenth century that it expanded to be the premier private yard in the country.