3-038-945 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

H.M.S. Caledonia and two steamers attempting to tow H.M.S. Psyche off a sunken rock on the coast of Sicily, 1871. 'The disaster which occurred to the despatch-boat Psyche, which left Malta on the 12th December [1870]. for Catania, in Sicily, conveying a party of British astronomers and other scientific observers to witness the eclipse of the sun, has been related in this Journal. She ran upon a sunken rock at Trizza, six miles east of Catania, and could not be got off; but all the persons on board, with the costly scientific instruments and other valuable property, were happily saved. Lieutenant-Commander Fellowes at once sent a telegram to the Admiral Commander-in-Chief at Malta informing him of the misfortune, and H.M.S. Caledonia was dispatched to render assistance; but she, on her arrival at the place, found H.M.S. Royal Oak, which was stationed along that part of the coast, already engaged in doing what service could be attempted. On the 19th came the Admiral himself, in his flagship the Lord Warden; and he was informed that all efforts to get the Psyche off the rocks had proved in vain, so that she must be abandoned or blown up where she lay...Our Illustration is from a sketch by an officer of the Caledonia, Mr. A. Jeffreys'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.