A perfectly composed view of the swift S.S. SARATOGA, cutting through the Atlantic waters in the envious view of a full rigged merchant sailing ship on crossed paths. Performed in his best and earliest professional period, James Gale Tyler thrived under the tutelage of artist and yacht designer A.C. Smith in New York. SARATOGA has just left the great Northeast port, bound for the Caribbean waters of Cuba in 1878 on her maiden run.

Tyler sets the motion with the steamship aggressively raked, a smoldering wisp of steam quickly disbursed in the wind and the sails in various stages of fullness. Appreciative passengers crowd the excellently detailed deck with the crew and her captain, John P. Sundberg, at the raised observation helm. Primarily employed to carry mail and cargo, in the late 1870s and early 1880s, SARATOGA also accommodated travelers between New York and Havana in cabin and steerage berths; many traveling to and from Spain.

The ship was built in 1874 by John M. Brooks and Malcolm Campbell in East Boston. Brooks had learned the trade in the local yard of the famous clipper-ship builder John MacKay, and the Campbell-Brooks team first launched her larger sister ship, CHAMPLAIN, earlier that year. The name SARATOGA, inspired from the important American Revolutionary victory that turned the tide for the colonials, had been used prior for three naval and one merchant ship, and would christen the important aircraft carrier in the 20th Century.