. English: A Perspective view of the River ThamesCopper-plate print entitled 'A Perspective view of the River Thames' and also inscribed; 'Taken from the Kings Arms at Blackwall; Shooters Hill, Woolwich; The East India Dock Yard. From London Magazine Mar 1782.' The Blackwall yard is on the left, Woolwich in the centre distance on the right (south) bank of the Thames and Shooter's Hill on the far right. The ship in the river mounting ten guns a side is probably a small Indiaman. Under her stern on the edge of Greenwich Marsh (Blackwall Point) can be seen the gibbeted body of a pirate or smuggl
. English: A Perspective view of the River ThamesCopper-plate print entitled 'A Perspective view of the River Thames' and also inscribed; 'Taken from the Kings Arms at Blackwall; Shooters Hill, Woolwich; The East India Dock Yard. From London Magazine Mar 1782.' The Blackwall yard is on the left, Woolwich in the centre distance on the right (south) bank of the Thames and Shooter's Hill on the far right. The ship in the river mounting ten guns a side is probably a small Indiaman. Under her stern on the edge of Greenwich Marsh (Blackwall Point) can be seen the gibbeted body of a pirate or smuggler, exposed there as a public warning to seamen, probably after being hanged at Execution Dock (see PAJ0887). There is a well-known early 19th century woodblock in Charles Ellms's 'The Pirates Own Book' (1837/ 1844, p. 178: NMM image D3864-15) whose caption states it shows ' hanging in chains', as he was when gibbeted at Tilbury after execution in 1701: however, the dress of the figure shown is quasi-naval seaman's clothing of around 1800 and with the 1793 masthouse of Blackwall Yard clearly shown across the river behind. The image - which may not be original to Ellms but reused from elsewhere- is therefore a later one of a malefactor (real or imagined) gibbeted at Blackwall Point, as in the present print A Perspective view of the River Thames . March 1782. Unknown 166 A Perspective view of the River Thames RMG PU1370
Size: 2762px × 1810px
Photo credit: © The Picture Art Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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