Sea Adventure: Wreck of the "Guardian" (colour litho)

Wreck of the "Guardian." On Christmas Eve, 1789, Lieutenant Edward Riou, in command of the convict ship Guardian which was as short of water as those ships usually were, sighted a large iceberg and sent his boats to it to collect ice that could be melted into fresh water. In doing so the ship was bilged on a hummock and seemed about to founder. Riou let all who would seek safety in the boats, but sixty stayed with him, and for two months they battled to get the sinking ship into Table Bay, Cape Colony, where she promptly foundered. She had saved her people, however, but two of the three boats disappeared. Illustration for one of a set of 50 cigarette cards on the subject of Sea Adventure, issued by Hignett Brothers in 1939.