This hand-coloured lithograph depicts English sailors sounding at Cronstadt, near St Petersburg. The paddle steamer in the foreground probably represents the ‘Lightning’, whose commander, Captain B. J. Sullivan, was in charge of a squadron that went to observe and survey the Cronstadt area. The ‘Lightning’ had fewer guns, so it is likely that the artist had not seen the ship. In the background are the port’s distinctive forts, illuminated by the sun, with another paddle steamer prominent in their midst. The ‘Lightning’ steams slowly ahead while a member of her crew is sounding from a tender – measuring the depth of the harbour by dropping a thin rope attached to a lead plummet to the seabed.