3-021-410 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Abyssinian Expedition: pier and landing-place at Zulla, Annesley Bay, 1868. Engraving from a photograph by Captain Pottinger, Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General. 'This pier...is about 300 yards long. It has been constructed with great labour; every stone being carried across by the boats from the opposite shore of Annesley Bay. Rails have been laid down to the end of the pier, and trucks are now running to and fro, busily working to convey the vast supplies of commissariat stores and ammunition which are continually being landed here, and several piles of which may be seen on the land, near the abutment of the pier. Two lines of tramway, from the beach to the foot of the highlands, are now at work; and a line is being levelled for the construction of a railway to Koomailee, the first camping-ground on the road of the [British] army to the interior of the country. The locomotives and plant for twenty miles of railway are purchased already, at Bombay, and will soon be transported to the shore of Annesley Bay. This pier at Zulla has been constructed by the Bombay Sappers, under the direction of Captain Goodfellow, R.E. The chief materials were blocks of coral, many of which are of a brilliant colour and of a beautiful feathery form'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.