Mystery locations

Where is this? Note the three-masted sailing ship.

My guess for these would be views of East Cowes from West Cowes.

I’ve no idea where this extraordinary vessel was photographed, and suspect it was not the Solent. I’ve sharpened the grayscale to bring out the "JS" on what looks like the cover of a paddle-wheel. Checking Google, I discover the SS Capitol, a Mississippi river-steamer.


But my search also leads to a steamer called JS, below:

Click for more details, including the information that it was destroyed by fire in 1910. So what Sep saw was the JS’s replacement, SS Capitol (not Capital) owned by the same company as the JS which had been named after its owner, John Streckfus.

Again, click for more details.

I wonder where on his travels, and when, he saw this? Is it possible it came to UK, along with a jazz band, and he saw it arriving in the Solent? Not, it was not constructed to cross the Atlantic. Perhaps his merchant navy career took him to New Orleans.

Puzzle indeed. This photo was very discoloured.