3-021-172 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The British Expedition to Abyssinia: H.M.S. Vigilant on the seven-fathom patch in the Red Sea, 1868. Royal Navy despatch-boat '...sending a pilot to a transport just arrived from Calcutta...[She is anchored] about twelve miles from Cape Shuldis, which is the nearest land. This is on the Abyssinian coast, near Amphila, sixty or seventy miles below the entrance to Annesley Bay. The Vigilant is stationed here to put pilots on board the transports from Bombay or Aden bound for Annesley Bay; which, the navigation being very intricate, is a most important duty. She is anchored close to the light-vessel which has been placed on this shoal. It was on board the light-ship that the pilots were at first stationed; but it was found that a larger vessel was required, with plenty of men and boats, to perform the arduous duty of sending them on board the transports in almost all weathers...The sea runs very high here at times, and on one occasion a boat, having been sent with a pilot to a transport, was unable to get back to the ship, and was carried down the Red Sea some seventy miles to an island, where she was fortunately picked up and brought back in safety'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.