'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎418] (437/622)

418
HISTORY OP THE INDIAN NAVY.
abolition of the Service put an end to their labours, and those
of the staunch little vessel, which for thirty-four years—first
as a ten-gun brig-of-war, and then as a surveying vessel-
had done so much in furthering the interests of India and of
science.
In the years 1859-60, Mr. Midshipman An experienced sailor, but not a commissioned officer. W. Marshall, of the
' Clyde,' gunboat, then stationed at the Andaman Islands, sur
veyed, unassisted. Port Blair, Middle Straits, and the Cocos
Islands. The chart of the former has been published by the
Admiralty, and the two latter were lithographed A lithograph is an image reproduced from a printing plate whose image areas attract ink and non-image areas repel it. in India.
Owing to the savage character of the Andamaners, the sur
veys were executed in boats fully manned and armed, with out
posts stationed in the jungle to "prevent surprises. "Mr. Mar
shall discovered," says Markham, " by several chronometric
measurements taken between Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta,
that the Andaman Islands were placed eleven miles too far to
the westward on the charts, and that the great Coco Island was
placed six miles too far to the westward of Port Blair." After
passing his examination for lieutenant, this energetic young
officer,* asssisted Lieutenant Whish in the new survey of
Bombay harbour, and then joined Lieutenant Williams, as
assistant-surveyor, in the examination of Back Bay.
In connection with the surveys of the Indian Navy, we
should not omit the record of an important duty performed,
after the abolition of the Service, by Lieutenant Edwin
Dawes, an accomplished draughtsman and surveyor, who had
been engaged in the 'Euphrates' in the survey of Sedashe-
ghur, under Lieutenant R. Williams, in 1861.
When, in 1865, a mission was undertaken by Colonel PellyJ
Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , to liiadh, in Central
Arabia, the capital of the Wahabee Ameer, Lieutenant Dawes,
then commanding the ' Berenice,' was attached to it and
rendered important services. The ' Berenice,' having Colonel
Pelly on board, left Bushire in January, 1865, and steamed
across the Gulf to Koweit. Colonel Pelly had intended to
leave for the interior immediately, but by advice of Sheikh
Yoosuf-bin Bidr, the horse merchant, at whose house the party
stayed, he determined to send a messenger to inform the
Wahabee Ameer of Nejd, Fysul-bin-Saood, of his intended
visit. A very short letter from Fysul, which was neither warm
nor pressing, came in due course, and, after spending some
days in making preparations and collecting camels, the party,
consisting of Colonel Pelly, Assistant-Surgeon Golville, the
* Since the abolition of the Service, Mr. Marshall has been engaged m the
snrveyand valuation, on an enormous scale, of railways, gas an wa er wo ,
docks, and other large properties for the purposes of paroehml assessment, he
having valued (as we have been informed) this class of property in J
thousand parishes in England and Wales.
f Now Sir Lewis Pelley, K.C.B,, 3LC.S.L