"The Down-East steamboats which ran out of Boston to Maine and Canada were a special breed. They had to be sturdily built and well-handled to thread the rocky channels and survive the offshore storms of that region. When this picture was painted by James Bard in 1850, the sidewheeler Ocean was the newest and finest of the Down-East type. Noted for her elegant accommodations, she also possessed the then-fashionable safety device of boilers 'on the guards' - that is, on the very edge of the overhanging main deck, where they might do least damage if they exploded. Note how her two smokestacks rising from these boilers stand abreast, with the steamer's whole width between. She ran between Boston and Bath, Maine, until November 24, 1854, when she collided with the incoming Cunard liner Canada at Boston. Burning (from dozens of overturned lamps and stoves) and sinking, the Ocean was a total loss, but almost all her passengers were saved."

MARINERS MUSEUM

Card #14. Description on back. Measures approximately 5-3/4 x 3-1/2 inches.

Gently bumped corners and only slight edge wear. Shallow crease at center of top edge.