John Fitch’s rather experimental steamboat is depicted in starboard broadside view on the Delaware River at Philadelphia. Six oars each side are suspended on a frame above the hull and, with a system of wheels and pulleys, are operated by a small steam engine set so low in the hull that the funnel is only just visible above the gunwale and the billowing smoke just clears the heads of three passengers in the stern. John Fitch’s name and the date 1786 are inscribed on the side of the vessel. A large flag with insignia flies from the stern. The river is busy with sailing vessels and rowing boats. The shoreline of Philadelphia is depicted, with church spires towering over houses and warehouses. Numerous vessels are anchored along the wharves. In the left hand foreground there is a windmill on which is inscribed “Sherwin”. This is probably the windmill on Windmill Island which was a silt accumulation island in the Delaware River opposite the town. This island was removed in the 1890s.

The inscription Sherwin on the windmill may refer to an artist John H. Sherwin (born 1834 in Vermont, fluvit 1850s) who depicted other early steam boat subjects, especially relating to Robert Fulton, with whom the Philadelphia lithographer Louis N. Rosenthal and the publisher J.F. Reigart were also associated. Perhaps this print of Fitch’s Perseverance was copied by Sherwin from an earlier drawing.