Description
This album covers Edward Gennys Fanshawe's Baltic service in command of HMS 'Cossack' during the Crimean War, August 1854 - August 1855, and his brief transfer to the 'Hastings' in the Baltic and latterly at Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland, 1855-56, though on her return to England in late 1855 he was invalided ashore until rejoining the ship at Queenstown in January 1856. It also covers his command of the 'Centurion' in the Mediterranean from May 1856 to June 1858, when he was again invalided home. Also included are holiday drawings made in Scotland in 1843 and 1883, Switzerland in 1877 and 1880, and a single drawing of Moulmein, Burma, made in 1846 during his Eastern posting as Commander in the 'Cruizer', 1844-46.
No. 35 in Fanshawe's Baltic and later album, 1843 - 83. Fold-out panoramic drawing on two joined sheets, the right one stuck down on the album page, which is captioned by the artist below the image, as title. Fanshawe, in command of the the 'Cruizer', arrived from Trincomalee (Sri Lanka) at Moulmein, Burma, in mid-December 1845 and remained there until sailing for Madras on 10 April 1846. He noted that 'I never was at any place possessing less of continued interest..' (Fanshawe [1904] p. 143), though he gave a good account of what he did see in his journal and letters. On 22 Dcember he told his mother: 'The country is pretty here, and singular in appearance from the number of pagodas perched on the hills. They are shaped like the bottom of peg-tops inverted [toy whipping tops] and are built solid, the gods being stowed in sheds close by. They are in honour of the Buddhist religion, which is that of the Burmese. The houses are built entirely of teak wood, and are raised from the ground on poles, like the Malay houses. The teak wood is the principal article of trade; there are large forests of it inland, and the timber is floated down the river to Moulmein in large rafts. One of my duties is to purchase 400 tons of it for the Government for the use of Trincomalee. Everthing is so quiet there is little for me to do..' (p.147). This drawing may be one of many he did to fill the time but is the only one from his Eastern posting that is included in the two albums which the Museum was given in 1951: it is also the earliest, since apart from a few drawings done in Britain in 1843, the rest date from 1849 on. It is apparently a view from about south or south-east of the town, of which the waterfront can be seen on the Gyaing River in the left middle ground, with the river heading east and north towards the Andaman Sea, out of frame to the left. Even if not quite so, 'inland' is to the right. Fanshawe's 1904 biography includes photographs of two other drawings done in the East, one of an 'Action with pirates, Borneo, 1845' (f.p.120) and another of Trincomalee in the same year (f. p. 142). The whereabouts of these, and probably many others from other periods of his career, are not known.
Image Licence
CC BY-NC-ND
Image Credit
© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Location
Mawlamyine, Myanmar (Burma)
Country
Myanmar (Burma)
Medium
Watercolour
Tags
Category
Landscapes & Seascapes
