Hand-colored lithograph depicting a side view of the Bark Catalpa. The boat flies a United States flag, and atop the three masts, from left, a red and white striped flag with the letters "J.T.R."; a blue pennant with the letter "C"; and a blue flag with a ring of blue dots. In the right-hand background is another ship with smoke rising up from it, labeled in the margin below "British Ship Georgette". In the left-hand background is a single-masted ship with four figures aboard, labeled in the margin "Police Boat." In the foreground, to the left, is a ship's boat packed with people, labeled in the margin "Ship's Boat with the Escaped Fenians".
A facsimile signature of the Catalpa's captain is also printed in the lower margin, along with the following text: "John T. Richardson, Ship's Agent. Drawn by E.N. Russell, of New Bedford, Mass. John J. Breslin, chief of the rescuing party." Date and publisher are also printed.
The Catalpa was a whaling ship which carried a party of escaped Irish nationalist prisoners from the Australia penal colony to the United States.
