Recto: Photograph of four ships at sea, with a very mountainous shore behind them. What appears to be a high peak--though it is considerably more blurred than the rest of the background, indicating it may have been a darkroom addition--lines up with the highest point of the mast of the closest and central vessel. In the margin is a manuscript ink inscription identifying three of the ships -- Foo-Chow, Serica, and Lahloo; no name given to vessel at far right--and the date, 1868. Two blurs on the water indicate moving rowboats, which were captured as blurs due to the long exposure time of the image.
Verso: Photograph of a harbor with many vessels, mostly sail but with a small steamship at right and a large one at left. In the background are mountains. Motion blur is visible on some of the figures on the near boats, and on oars, but the exposure time was short enough to capture some of the shape of the waves.
The outer edges of both images are blurred, more noticeably on the verso than on the recto; this was a characteristic of early photographic optics.
