A watercolour of the Royal Mail Steam Packet paddle steamer, Paramatta, from the port stern quarter. She is grounded stern first on a beach, her port paddle and rudder well out of the water, her keel and bows just in the surf as she heels slightly to starboard. A group of men on the shore, under the stern of the ship, are working with ropes. A small rowing boat, perhaps a ship’s lifeboat, is also beached beneath the stern. Figures are visible on the deck. Two other paddle steamers can be seen in the distance, as can the cliffs of a headland. Although the waves breaking on the shore are not particularly powerful, the sky, illuminated by the rising or setting sun, might represent a passing storm.

This scene depicts the Paramatta’s maiden voyage in 1859, during which she was wrecked after running aground on Horseshoe Reef near Anegarda Island, West Indies. No lives were lost.