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Oil on canvas, 71cm x 91cm
This painting shows the ship-rigged Siam being towed down the English Channel by the Liverpool-built iron paddle steamer, Windsor.
The weather looks heavy and the Siam's sailing and rigging look intact, suggesting that she is simply being towed against an adverse tide rather than because of damage. Records show that this is the case: Siam left Gravesend bound for Constantinople on 23 October but sought assistance and shelter from a gale at Deal on the following day.
The Windsor was built in 1845. She operated on the Liverpool-Belfast passenger service for the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company from 1846 to 1851. Siam was built in Ipswich in 1855 for the Middlesborough Dock Company and operated between London and the Crimea and then in the China trade. She was abandoned at sea by 1872.