File:A View of the Thames East-Indiaman. As she lay stranded near East Bourne in Feb 1822 RMG PW7706.tiff

English: A View of the Thames East-Indiaman. As she lay stranded near East Bourne in Feb 1822

This print was originally published with an accompanying text sheet reading: 'A View of the 'Thames' East Indiaman, William Heaviside, Esq. Commander. Burthen 1350 tons. This fine ship was out-ward bound from London for China, and was driven on shore by a heavy gale, near Eastbourne, Sussex, on Sunday morning, the 3d February, 1822; her Extensive Cargo was taken out without loss (excepting damage by water) under the direction and management of Mr. J. B. Stone, of New-haven, Agent to Lloyd's. She lay in this situation from the 3d of February to the 22d, when she was got off, to the great gratification of many thousands of Spectators; she was then conducted away for Deptford, by two Steam Vessels, which were in attendance for that purpose. She arrived safe at Deptford, on the 24th of February, with a prospect of being speedily repaired to proceed on her original destination.' : (see George F. Chambers, ' Eastbourne Memories' [Eastbourne c. 1910] , p. 84). The view is looking eastwards towards Langney (or Langley) Point with Martello Towers nos. 71 to 67 shown in recession. The towers were constructed on the south and east coasts (1804-12) running east from Seaford in Sussex to Aldeburgh in Suffolk. Those on the Essex/ Suffolk coast were built after those in Kent and Sussex. There were originally 103, but only covering low-lying beaches on which Napoleon's long-threatened invasion of Britain could have taken place. Only 47 of these now survive of which 17 are on the East Coast and the remainder in Kent and Sussex (though a report in 1939 only identified 27).They mostly worked on the principle shown here of being at regularly spaced intervals of several hundred yards and being interdependent, with interlocking fields of fire. Later examples, including in Ireland and North America, were like the Corsican tower on which they were based in being more isolated strongpoint defences. PAD1621-23 are original drawings of the Corsican tower on Mortella Point, near San Fiorenzo (St Florent), and PAD1624 the published print from them: MDL0010 is the original model of the English Martellos. As the print inscriptions show, Charles Ade of Wilmington, Sussex, drew this scene on 11 February during the salvage of the 'Thames' and published the print in March after Havell had made the plate - itself a demonstration of the speed of good quality aquatint etching compared to line engraving. Ade was probably not a professional artist: no other image by him has yet been found but he must have had the means to have this plate engraved from his own drawing, perhaps for local sale as a souvenir of the event. He is known from genealogy web pages to have been born into a Wilmington family in 1756: he appears to have married (late) in 1820 and had three children before dying at an unknown date.

A View of the Thames East-Indiaman. As she lay stranded near East Bourne in Feb 1822. The view is looking eastwards towards Langney (or Langley) Point with Martello Towers nos. 71 to 67 shown in recession.