2-979-776 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Boat from the "Madras" Steamer picking up an Arab Budgerow in the Red Sea, with Capt. Gough and the Australian Mails, 1857. '...the Royal mail steamer Emeu, on her passage to Suez with the Australian mails, struck on a coral reef...A portion of the mail was then taken out, and conveyed in an open boat, at great peril, the officer in charge displaying an amount of courage and endurance in the discharge of a public duty...On the second night after leaving the ship there came on a terrific thunderstorm, which, lasted several hours; and so violent was the rain that it was thought the boat would have filled...in the hope of reaching Toor in a few hours, when the remainder of their journey could be accomplished on camels...they signalled the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer Madras [and were rescued]...engraved from a sketch by D. Abraham, surgeon of the Madras'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.