Tinted lithograph depicting a stern view of a vessel at the edge of the water on a beach, with men standing around it, and various boats and spars lining the beach. The vessel has two hulls and a single line of four masts running down the centre between the two hulls. It has a single rudder, and the windows and decoration of the stern span the gap between the two hulls. Artist attributions, title, and date of publication ("1st July 1848") are printed in lower margin.
Patrick Millar was the inventor of this unusual vessel, named "Experiment of Leith", and described in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1788 as follows:
"This vessel is a kind of double ship strongly connected by her upper works; she is 90 feet long, with her other dimensions in proportion, has five masts and is provided with wheels, which work a number of oars, to be used when there is no wind. She is said to have cost upwards of 3,000 [pounds]."
Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. iv., also provides a description of the subject of this print:
"At Leith [...] two very narrow vessels were joined together by the beams of the lower and upper decks. She had five masts and was furnished with five wheels [...] But in a passage which she made to Petersburg, the two bottoms were found to act as levers against each other, not merely in keeping her stiff (or upright) but also in straining the whole frame, whereby she was so much injured, that nobody cared to venture home in her, and she was left in Russia."
The "Experiment of Leith" did complete a successful voyage before her venture to St. Petersburg: she sailed to Stockholm where Millar was hoping that she would convince King Gustav III to adopt his design of a double-hulled warship. On the advice of the King's naval architect Fredrik Hendrik af Chapman, the design was rejected.
