This mezzotint shows the crew of the frigate ‘Guardian’, commanded by Lieutenant Edward Riou, abandoning ship after she had struck an iceberg in the Southern Ocean on Christmas Eve 1789. The accident happened as she was taking stores and skilled personnel to the straitened and newly established Botany Bay convict colony at Port Jackson (modern Sydney). The ship had approached the iceberg in order to obtain fresh water, but her rudder and part of her keel were torn off when she struck a submerged spur of ice. One sailor wields an axe, waiting for the order to cut the jolly boat free, while two officers apparently implore the brave captain to leave his sinking ship. Through his brilliant seamanship and forceful personality, however, Riou succeeded in getting the vessel back to Table Bay at Cape Town by the following February with a skeleton crew, after half of those on board abandoned ship (the other half being lost). The drama is enhanced by the sight of icicles hanging from the rigging and blocks of ice threatening to tumble onto the deck, and by a sailor praying for their lives. The jolly boat is well prepared though: one sailor brandishes a harpoon, another holds out his telescope, and we can see livestock and supplies on board.