File:Elizabeth Ann Rust and baby William on board "Lady Canning" floating church in Calcutta.jpg

A floating church in Calcutta harbour, dated to late 1875 or early 1876. It's not so much the photograph that's of interest here as the amazing inscription. The reverse can be seen here. The full transcription is represented here:

"The Floating Church Calcutta

The Lady Canning was a ship built in Calcutta on the lines of the Victoria & Albert, the Queen ???? ??? yatch [sic], made to chase the Chines[e] pirates in the East, but the builders forgot that she would have to carry heavy guns, & when they took her down into the Indian Oceans for her trial ???? & some bad weather came on, they had to throw her arms over board to save the ship. Her lines were too fine for guns. Just then my predecessor [as chaplain of the Port of Calcutta I believe] asked the dockyard authorities if they could give him an old ship which could be fitted up as a floating Church & Library. The dockyard people had a private meeting and concluded that this would be a good way of getting rid of their failure, so they took out the middle deck and made a beautiful church & quarters for the parson & his family aft."

There is a further note that simply states "That's the way the money goes".

On the front, as shown here, the text reads:

"After that the Bishop gave me a block of buildings at Bishop's College where Harry [Rust] was born."

Finally, the picture itself is captioned:

"The ???? of the Lady Canning the sitting room is behind the window. Willie [Rust] the firstborn asleep at his mother's feet"