Mail and baggage being brought aboard a South Eastern & Chatham Railway cross-channel steamer alongside Admiralty Pier, Dover. Members of the crew are carrying the mail sacks on their shoulders across the brow. Two of the crew are carrying passenger's trunks aboard. One of the trunks has labels on it for Orient Line London to Brisbane via Naples. The other has labels for London to Madras via Brindisi. The photographer is looking forward and to starboard from between the paddle boxes. On the pier is a crane manufactured by Grafton & Co. of Bedford. A railway carriage is beyond the crane and sightseers are on the upper part of the pier.