A Mississippi paddlewheel steamer with ornate decks and a flying flag

pencil and watercolor illustration in the style of Jean Moebius Giraud, of a Mississippi paddlewheel steamer as described by Mark Twain in Life on the Mississippi: "And the boat IS rather a handsome sight, too. She is long and sharp and trim and pretty; she has two tall, fancy-topped chimneys, with a gilded device of some kind swung between them; a fanciful pilot-house, all glass and 'gingerbread,' perched on top of the 'texas' deck behind them; the paddle-boxes are gorgeous with a picture or with gilded rays above the boat's name; the boiler deck, the hurricane deck, and the texas deck are fenced and ornamented with clean white railings; there is a flag gallantly flying from the jack-staff; the furnace doors are open and the fires glaring bravely; the upper decks are black with passengers"

NSFW, watermark