3-008-737 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Visit of H.M.S. Gorgon to the Zambesi River: The brig Hetty Ellen discharging sections of Dr. Livingstone's new steamer the Lady Nyassa into the Pioneer to take up the Zambesi, 1862. Engraving from a sketch by Mr. Sewall, of her Majesty's ship Gorgon. '...a brig hove in sight...[she] proved to be the Hetty Ellen, of Newport, laden with the sections of a small iron steamer - the Lady Nyassa - intended for Dr. Livingstone...Mrs. Livingstone [a passenger on the Hetty Ellen] was trying to join her husband...We had the satisfaction of hearing that the doctor, in his little steamer the Pioneer, was trying to make his way down the Zambesi...the Gorgon, therefore, proceeded there without delay with the brig, but on getting off Luabo the Pioneer was discovered at anchor inside the bar. Captain Wilson immediately communicated, but nearly lost his life and that of the boat's crew, for his gig was swamped in going over. The next morning the doctor came out in his steamer, when a happy meeting took place between him and Mrs. Livingstone...A quantity of the O.C.D.D. Mission goods was landed beside the Portuguese Custom House and placed under tents, it being impossible to carry them up in the Pioneer, no other mode of transit having been provided'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.