2-996-002 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

H.M.S. "Termagant" convoying the gun-boats "Grappler" and "Forward" through the Straits of Magellan: steaming through the ice in Wide Channel - from a sketch by C. Royle, R.N., 1860. 'The voyage down to the eastern entrance of the Straits of Magellan (under canvas) was necessarily slow and tedious...On reaching the Straits, however, steam was got up by the Termagant [25-gun screw-frigate], and the small vessels were towed by her through the entire length of the Straits of Magellan, Smyth, Sarmiento, Wide, and Messier Channels, out into the Pacific Ocean. In consequence of the intricate navigation in the above channels, it became necessary to anchor every night...to cut firewood for the steamers, whose stock of fuel was nearly exhausted by so much steaming...the view, as the three vessels steamed through the various channels, most striking; the snow-covered Andes, upwards of 5000 feet in height on the northern shore, and the barren-looking coast of Tierra del Fuego, likewise glittering with snow on the other side; the water covered with myriads of wild-fowl and studded with numerous islands, overgrown with the most luxuriant vegetation...On the arrival of the vessels at Wide Channel a large field of drift ice and two icebergs were passed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.