3-034-744 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Encampment of officers and crew, 1871. Wreck of the Royal Navy frigate HMS Megaera on Ile Saint-Paul, French Southern and Antarctic Lands. View of '...the tents of the officers and sailors, the mess-tent, the cooking-galley...marked by its smoking chimney, or iron stove-pipe,...the booth for eating and drinking, called "The Royal Hotel," and several storehouses. The officers' mess-tent is that which stands highest on the ground to the left, with two crossed ends of poles forming a gable above the entrance. Next to this is the Captain's house...it has a little garden under the windows...[Also shown,] besides one or two tents on the higher ground, called "Rose Cottage" and other pleasant names, [are] the old sheds close to the seashore, which were made available as storehouses....There was about 13,000 lb. of bread, and flour enough for six weeks' ordinary consumption, with salt meat, rum, and other provisions to last four months...in front of the cooking-galley are the rudely-formed tents of sailors; behind it are two neatly-shaped habitations, the larger belonging to the officers' servants, the smaller allotted to a French governess'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.