2-981-793 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Illumination of the surf at Madras, 1876. Water fireworks in India, consisting of '...splendid flights of rockets from the pier and from the fleet, of coloured fires in boats and catamarans, and of the discharge from the catamarans into the surf of fireworks ...which water cannot extinguish...the effect of scores of these fires in the lines of seething foam was really superb, and the Prince [of Wales] was greatly...interested, and himself threw from the pier many of these cases of modern Greek fire...It seemed as if volcanoes were emitting volumes of coloured flames. Presently appeared fires, here and there...like fireships from afar. These multiplied, dipping, rising, now and then, through the waves...These hardy fellows, watching an opportunity, keep the top of the wave by tremendous efforts, and are borne past with wonderful velocity, yet emerge safely from each succeeding breaker'. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.