3-070-493 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Slave Trade on the East Coast of Africa, from sketches by our special artist, Mr. J. Bell: depot of stores for boats of H.M.S. London, at Funzi, Pemba, 1881. 'The London is an old wooden line-of-battle ship, converted into a stationary store-ship; she was formerly a steamer, but her engines and boilers and screw have been removed. She arrived at Zanzibar in 1873, with a special equipment of steam-launches for cruising about those waters [in search of slave ships]. On board the London is a steam factory, to do the needful repairs to these boats, and the ship affords excellent hospital accommodation. The method of operations is to send out boats from the London, which cruise along the coast for a month at a time, and are provisioned for that period, after which they return to the London, and other boats take their place. These boats' crews consist of a lieutenant, coxswain, interpreter, and eight men, and they have instructions to board every dhow coming in sight. The life is an extremely hard one'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.