This coloured lithograph depicts the sinking of the paddle steamer, William Huskisson, on 12th January 1840, in a storm off Holyhead. Owned by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, she was carrying 120 passengers and some cattle from Liverpool to Dublin when she sprang a leak in a storm. Fortunately, as depicted, the three-masted merchant sailing ship, Huddersfield, on its way from Liverpool to Africa, commanded by Captain John Arden Clegg, successfully rescued 73 passengers and 20 crew from the stern of the steamer before it had to be abandoned. Both vessels are depicted in starboard broadside view, the bows of the Huddersfield against the stern of the William Huskisson. A crowd of passengers and crew can be seen on the stern deck of the William Huskisson, many being lifted up onto the fore deck of the Huddersfield. Several figures can be seen in the water off the stern of the steamer.
[Source: The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle, 1840, p.127]