It is an oil painting by the English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner painted in 1838. The painting depicts HMS Temeraire being towed towards its final berth in Rotherhithe to be broken up for scrap at Bull Head Wharf, where you are now standing. The ship was too large to fit inside the dock so was beached on the shore. This dock was formerly owned by the Woolcombe family, and the block of apartments behind you is called Woolcombes Court.
The 98-gun ship 'Temeraire' (yes, 98 guns!) played a distinguished role in Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, after which she was known as the 'Fighting Temeraire'. The ship remained in service until 1838. A “first rate ship of the line”, she was the largest ship ever sold off by the Admiralty. Some of the wood from the ship was used in St Mary's Church Rotherhithe and one piece rather endearingly went to a former sailor on the ship, to provide him with a false leg to replace the one he lost at Trafalgar.
Many warships that survived their wartime careers were sold for breaking up when their life was over. John Beatson paid £5530 for HMS Temeraire which equates to some £300,000 today.
The painting hangs in the National Gallery, bequeathed to the nation by the artist in 1851. In 2005 it was voted the nation's favourite painting in a poll organised by BBC Radio 4's Today programme. It was thought to represent the decline of Britain's naval power. The 'Temeraire' is shown travelling east, away from the sunset, even though Rotherhithe is west of Sheerness from where it was towed, but Turner's main concern was to evoke a sense of loss, rather than to give an exact recording of the event. The spectacularly colourful setting of the sun draws a parallel with the passing of the old warship. By contrast the new steam-powered tug is smaller and more prosaic.
Turner was in his sixties when he painted 'The Fighting Temeraire'. It shows his mastery of painting techniques to suggest sea and sky. Paint laid on thickly is used to render the sun's rays striking the clouds. By contrast, the ship's rigging is meticulously painted.
You may feel overlooked by the surrounding apartments, you are! But I am one of them so I can keep a watchful eye on the cache.