Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is a river city founded in 1623. The South End, which includes Strawbery Banke, is one of the earliest colonial settlements along the Piscataqua River. Ships were not regularly built in Portsmouth's South End until the 1850s, and the launch of the merchant ship Sarah E. Pettigrew marked a new era in shipbuilding on the Piscataqua River. The Marcy-Pettigrew shipyard built some of the finest vessels at the time.

The drawing for the woodcut "Shipyard" was made in the early 2000s from the top of the Pierce Island Bridge, looking down onto the La Cava Lobster Company and the surrounding wharves and early American houses. La Cava Lobster was demolished in 2019, and the surrounding area is now primarily residential. It still retains a sense of its past commercial importance along a protected shoreline. The South End meeting house rises above, and skyward anchors decorate the design.