2-888-654 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Accident to Her Majesty's Steamer "Cuckoo", at Jersey, 1850. The beacon '...on the Oyster Rocks (Les Huitrieres) at the entrance to the small roads to St. Hellier...had been swept away by violent storms...The Cuckoo...was steaming towards Victoria Harbour...when her starboard bow suddenly struck upon the dangerous and unbeaconed rocks...Captain Dumaresq then got all the Cuckoo's steam up, ordered the troops en masse astern, to keep her bows as much as possible from the water, and happily succeeded in driving her, just beyond the harbour's entrance, into shallow water...All the troops on deck were then safely landed in boats...the late serious accident to a Queen's vessel...must have convinced the authorities that the re-erection of the Oyster-rocks beacon is necessary for the safety of vessels entering or leaving the harbour'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.