'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎40] (59/622)

40
HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAYY.
working at full speed, the vessel maintained her position at the
bank until the storm abated (as the enclosed letter from Captain
Estconrt will explain more fully) and as it required all the power
of a fifty-horse engine in the case of the 4 Euphrates' to keep
her hawsers from snapping, I infer that the twenty-horse of the
4 Tigris' would not have been sufficient to enable her to keep
the position at the bank, even if the officers had succeeded in
securing her alongside of it.
64 Lieutenant Lynch and Mr. Eden continued cool and
collected until the last minute, nor were any efforts wanting
that skill or presence of mind could suggest to save the vessel
in the first instance, and the lives in the second, when the first
had failed ; nor could anything be more exemplary than their
conduct and that of all on board. Scarcely was a word spoken,
not a murmur w 7 as heard; and death was met with that
exemplary degree of intrepidity and resignation which have
been displayed by every individual throughout the arduous and
trying service in which we have been engaged since January,
1835."
This terrible calamity cost the lives of two officers,* thirteen
Europeans, and five Natives, but in no way damped the deter
mination of the survivors to continue the survey and descent of the
Euphrates until success was achieved, notwithstanding the loss
of one steamer, with valuable instruments and stores, a large
portion of th^ party, and all the money. The survivors of the
'Tigris'! were sent to England from motives of economy, and
the remainder of the Expedition continued the descent of the
river in the 'Euphrates.' Passing by Hillah and the remains
of Ancient Babylon, and past the Lamlum marshes, the steamer
brought up off Koorna, at the junction of the Euphrates and
Tigris, on the 18th of June, and, on the following day,
reached Bussorah, forty-three miles distant. As there were no
# Lieutenants H. B. Lynch, and H. Cockburn, R.A., one interpreter,
one engineer, five men of the Rojal Artillery, one of the Eoyal Sappers and
Miners, five seamen, and five Natives. Lieutenant Coekburn had on that morning
sought for leave to spend the day on board the 4 Euphrates,' but failing to meet
Lieutenant Lynch, his commanding officer, returned to his own vessel. He was
a most active and indefatigable young officer. One of the survivors, Mr. Taylour
Thomson, is now Charge d'Affaires and Consul-General in Chili. Mr. (now
Captain) Henry Eden, K.N., still survives. A memorial to the officers and men
who were drowned on board the 'Tigris,' on the 21st of May, 1836, has been
erected at the British Yice-Consulate at Marghill, near Bussorah.
t The Bombay G-overnment being desirous of raising the ' Tigris' and taking
the 'Euphrates' to Bombay, Commodore Pepper, then commanding the Persian
G-ulf Squadron, detached Lieutenant Sharp, commanding the ' Tigris,' with his
first-lieutenant, Griffith Jenkins, and thirty men, to take the necessary measures.
The party proceeded to Bagdad, but, after consultation with Colonel Taylor, it
was found that it would be impracticable to raise the 'Tigris,' of which no trace
had at any time been discovered ; they were, however, about to carrv out their
instructions regarding the removal of the ' Euphrates,' when ordei 's came to
countermand them, as the Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs. had purchased her of the British
Government, and intended that she should remain in Mesopotamia.