Inscribed: “Deplorable Situation of the Crew of the Fanny, at the time of their departure in the Rafts, from the Wreck.”

The ‘Fanny’, already damaged in a typhoon off the Straits of Malacca in September 1803, struck an uncharted reef several hundred miles off the coast of Vietnam. Four Portuguese were taken off by an American ship, while the captain and mate and the Lascar members of the crew abandoned ship later in two roughly made ‘floats’. All but one of the Lascars were murdered by Malay pirates, but Captain Robertson and his crew reached safety.

This aquatint is an illustration from Thomas Tegg's accounts of shipwrecks, a 27-part pamphlet series published 1805-10. The BL date their holdings of this particular part – tentatively – to 1805. Uniquely for the plates folded in with this series, of which the NMM has several, this one includes an artist’s initials, “WmE”, which have for some unknown reason been printed in reverse (bottom-right of plate, between image and caption). This raises the possibility that a pre-existing picture has been re-purposed, although every other element reads correctly, and as no matching original has so far been identified, perhaps this is merely the result of a mistake.

Technique includes etching.