3-034-747 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The last of the Megaera, 1871. Wreck of the Royal Navy frigate HMS Megaera on Ile Saint-Paul, French Southern and Antarctic Lands. Due to '...the ship leaking continually from a hole in the iron plates of her bottom, while the weather was very stormy...[it was considered] most unsafe to proceed on the voyage to Australia, the nearest part of which lay 1800 miles distant. This opinion was fully confirmed by two other steam-ship engineers, who happened to be on board...Captain Thrupp therefore, on Sunday morning, June 18, after reading prayers as usual, announced to the ship's company that they would land at once. Provisions and stores were put ashore by the diligent labour both of the officers and men...The ship had been run aground on the Monday afternoon, upon a sandy bottom, under shelter of the "Ninepin Rock," in 10 ft. of water forward and 18 ft. astern. The men behaved well, except one, who was punished with forty-eight lashes for refusing to work. The officers filled coal-bags, landed boats, manned them, and landed stores, just like the common seamen...The shipwrecked company have since been fetched away from the island by the steam-ship Malacca, which has conveyed them safely to Australia'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.