Watercolour heightened with white and bodycolour. This drawing is the original of a coloured lithograph (PAH8872). The launch date of the British Queen was delayed because of the financial failure of her engineers, but although the Sirius and the Great Western had preceeded her, she was among the first steamers to cross the Atlantic westward. She is shown at rest, port view, with passengers embarking or disembarking from small boats clustered around the stern, and on the steps leading to the ship's deck.