The British and North American Royal Mail Steam Ship 'Scotia', c 1867

The British and North American Royal Mail Steam Ship 'Scotia', c 1867. Copy of a painting. Albumen print from the album assembled by John Downes Rochfort. Rochfort visited all the major American Civil War sites in 1867 and some of the photographs he purchased en route have since become some of that war's best known images. Up to this date war had been portrayed as a series of heroic tableaux; these photographs revealed the realities of war for the first time. Rochfort returned from America on the 'Scotia', arriving in Liverpool on 7th December, 1867. The ship was the last and the finest paddle-driven vessel to be constructed for the Atlantic service and held the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing from 1862 to 1867. ©SSPL/National Media Museum