File:The ship Roxburgh Castle RMG BHC3594.tiff
![File:The ship Roxburgh Castle RMG BHC3594.tiff](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/The_ship_Roxburgh_Castle_RMG_BHC3594.tiff/lossy-page1-800px-The_ship_Roxburgh_Castle_RMG_BHC3594.tiff.jpg?20170918042114)
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Captions
Captions
Summary
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Author |
James Harris |
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Object type |
painting object_type QS:P31,Q3305213 |
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Description |
English: The ship Roxburgh Castle This painting shows the ship 'Roxburgh Castle', of Green's Blackwall line, rescuing the crew of the burning 'British Merchant' of Newcastle on Tyne, about 60 miles south-east of St Helena on 17 January 1853. The 'Roxburgh Castle', 1121 tons, was built at Sunderland in 1852 for Richard Green and registered for voyages from London to Sydney. She is shown here in starboard-broadside view on the left, with a crowned classical male figurehead (possibly Neptune). Her stem also interestingly shows a point in the transition from beakhead to clipper style. The 'British Merchant' appears in bow view on the right with foremast and sails still intact but her other masts burnt and fallen overboard. The 'Roxburgh Castle's' boats are helping rescue her crew, watched by well-dressed male and female passengers on the poop and crew members on the fo'c'sle. An upturned boat is in the foreground, by implication from the burning vessel and suggesting the likely fate of crews forced to abandon ship in open ocean without such fortuitous rescue as the picture shows. 'The Times' of 28 February 1853 (p. 4), reported the arrival off Portland of 'Roxburgh Castle', Captain [Edward] Hight, on Saturday 26th, 'with 70 passengers and a large freight of gold' from her maiden voyage to Port Phillip (Melbourne), Australia. It adds: 'On the passage the Roxburgh Castle rescued the crew, 21 in number, of a merchant ship on fire, which afterwards burnt to the water's edge.' 'Roxburgh Castle' reached Gravesend on 2 March and on the 5th the 'Illustrated London News' (p. 180) published a full report of the incident, with a wood engraving of the burning ship in the foreground and the 'Roxburgh Castle' beyond. Appearances suggest Harris may well have used this and the 'ILN' report as a visual source for the casualty. The 'British Merchant', Captain Anderson, was inward bound for London from Cochin, India, with a cargo of oil, coir fibre, pepper etc., when she caught fire about 4.30 a. m. on 11 January, apparently by spontaneous combustion in her cargo. Her position at the time was latitude 24. 32' S., longitude 5. 13' E., well off the west coast of southern Africa around Cape Frio. Attempts to douse the fire with water and then suffocate it by battening down the hatches both failed but the crew managed to contain it for the next five days. At about 10 a.m. on the morning of the 17th the boats were finally lowered for escape, although they were still fighting the flames with water. The 'ILN' continues: 'About eleven A. M. a ship providentially hove in sight, promptly bore down, and proved to be the 'Roxburgh Castle', Hight, from Port Phillip for London, who immediately sent two boats. About noon part of the 'British Merchant' gave way. The flames, flying upwards, forced the master and crew into the boats, without saving anything belonging to them: ... In about half an hour after leaving ... the mizen-mast went over the side; and, about twenty minutes afterwards, the mainmast. The ship had burned down nearly to the water's edge abaft, and in a solid body of fire as far forward as the fore-hatchway, when Captain Hight, of the 'Roxburgh Castle' bore away at three P. M. : St Helena bearing about N.W., distant about sixty miles...' in latitude 16. 23'S., longitude 5. 2' W. The relative positions between the 11th and 17th suggest that, while fighting the fire, the 'British Merchant' may also have been trying to make St Helena - a major rendezvous and watering point in the South Atlantic shipping lanes: this would certainly have been the best thing to do, if possible. The painting is signed and dated lower right, 'Jas Harris 1853'. |
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Date |
1853 date QS:P571,+1853-00-00T00:00:00Z/9 |
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Dimensions | Painting: 1015 mm x 1625 mm; Frame: 1234 mm x 1824 mm x 100 mm | |||||||||||
Collection |
institution QS:P195,Q7374509 |
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Source/Photographer | http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/15067 | |||||||||||
Permission (Reusing this file) |
The original artefact or artwork has been assessed as public domain by age, and faithful reproductions of the two dimensional work are also public domain. No permission is required for reuse for any purpose. The text of this image record has been derived from the Royal Museums Greenwich catalogue and image metadata. Individual data and facts such as date, author and title are not copyrightable, but reuse of longer descriptive text from the catalogue may not be considered fair use. Reuse of the text must be attributed to the "National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London" and a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 license may apply if not rewritten. Refer to Royal Museums Greenwich copyright. |
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Identifier InfoField | id number: BHC3594 undefined: 1948-718.2 |
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Collection InfoField | Green Blackwall collection |
Licensing
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This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain".
This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details. |
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current | 04:21, 18 September 2017 | ![]() | 6,400 × 3,914 (71.67 MB) | Fæ (talk | contribs) | Royal Museums Greenwich Green Blackwall collection (1853), http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/15067 #927 |
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