3-017-291 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Testimonial to a French admiral for assisting the crew of the Bombay, 1865. 'The terrible disaster which befel H.M.S. Bombay, off the port of Montevideo, on the 22nd of December last, when nearly a hundred officers and men lost their lives in the burning ship, will not be forgotten by our readers...At the court-martial held on board the Victory, at Portsmouth, to inquire into the circumstances of this affair, it appeared that those who were rescued from the Bombay, 600 in number, were treated with the greatest kindness, when they got ashore, by the officers of the French and Italian squadrons then at Montevideo, who supplied them with such clothes, food, and other necessaries as they required. In acknowledgment of this friendly action the British Government has sent to Admiral Chaigneau the piece of plate manufactured by Messrs. Widdowson and Veale. It bears the following inscription "Presented by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to M. le Contre Amiral Chaigneau, Commandeur de la Legion d'Honneur, Commander-in-Chief of H.I.M. squadron in the Brazils, as a mark of their high appreciation of his great kindness to the officers and crew of H.B.M. late ship Bombay, after the destruction of that ship by fire on the 14th Dec, 1864".' From "Illustrated London News", 1865.