A whole plate negative. On board the passenger cruise ship Ceylon (1858) at moorings in Gravesend Reach, River Thames. The photographer is on the port side of the upper deck amidships, just ahead of the mizzen mast, looking forward at a passenger deckhouse, the short funnel and the bridge wing surmounted by a telegraph. A bearded crew member is standing at the access break in the bulwark looking at the photographer. A signal cannon is on a wheeled truck just beyond the crewman.