Irish Ships and Shipping
Famous Irish Mariners
Sir Ernest Shackleton
1874-1921
Ernest
Henry Shackleton was born at Kilkee, Co. Clare, Ireland in 1874 and completed
his formal education in
In 1908
Shackleton sailed from
In this,
his bid to reach the Pole, Shackleton brought with him some Manchurian ponies to
pull the sledges over the frozen wastes. He penetrated to 80- 23" seconds south
and pioneered the route to be followed by subsequent explorers by way of
In 1914 Shackleton again set forth to reach the South Pole and this third expedition in the "Endurance" was undoubtedly his most famous exploit and proved one of the most heroic struggles for survival in the annals of exploration. Indeed his ship was well named.
In the
voyage to
Although
the "Endurance" was probably the strongest wooden ship ever built with her hull
in places two and a half feet thick, she eventually buckled under the strain and
all essential gear was taken off as well as three lifeboats and the expedition's
49 dogs. Thus the expedition's twenty seven members, under the command of
Shackleton, were marooned on the frozen wasteland of the
Shackleton looking over the side of the Endurance as the ice starts to crush
her.
Shackleton had already decided that they would march over the frozen ocean
towards
Shackleton, too, appeared cheerful and resolute for he was
an explorer in the classic model — utterly self- reliant, romantic, and a little
swashbuckling. He was now forty years old, a stocky, iron - jawed man who
thoroughly believed the motto of his family "By endurance we conquer".
After they had spent 36 hours on the ice Shackleton called
all hands together and talked about the journey that lay ahead. It was
imperative, he explained gravely, that all weight be reduced to the barest
minimum. Each man would be allowed a minimum of clothing, a pound of tobacco and
two pounds of personal gear. When he had finished speaking, he reached under his
coat and took out a gold cigarette case and several gold sovereigns and threw
them into the snow at his feet. Then he opened the Bible that Queen Alexandra,
the Queen Mother, had given the expedition and whipped out the fly leaf
containing her inscription which read "may the Lord help you to do your duty
and guide you through all dangers by land and sea." Then he laid the Bible on
the snow and walked away.
It was a dramatic gesture but a calculated one and as the
afternoon wore on it appeared that Shackleton's example had been effective. The
amount of nonessentials dumped in the centre of the tent grew steadily.
Shackleton also ordered the four puppies among the sledge dogs to be killed as
there was only food for those who could pull their weight.
Next day, 30th October, they started off with Shackleton and the pioneering party leading the way to search for the most level route. The dog teams came next pulling heavily laden sledges and then under the command of Frank Worsley who had been Captain of the "Endurance", came the last and most difficult operation moving the boats. This was a killing job with the boats, drawn one at a time by fifteen men harnessed in traces, weighing over a ton each. They sank deeply into the snow and to move them the men had to strain forward in their traces until they were at times leaning almost parallel with the ground. Every few hundred yards they had to chop a miniature mountain path through pressure ridges and on particularly high ridges a ramp of ice and snow had to be built up one side and down the other.
During
the first day they covered a distance of one mile and it snowed heavily that
night so that next day progress was even less. Shackleton decided that it was
not worthwhile going on. They were then camped on an unusually strong floe
On 21st
November the "Endurance" sank and so everything depended on the drift of the ice
pack which might continue to go north-west carrying them towards their goal,
They remained at Ocean Camp for almost two months crammed together in an inadequate tent with little to place between their sleeping bags and the bar ice. Eventually on 21st December Shackleton called all hands together and informed them that they would start trekking across the ice in two days hence. They intended to travel mostly at night when temperatures would be lower and the ice surface firmer. Furthermore he said, since they would be on the trail over Christmas they would observe the holidays before leaving and all hands could now eat everything they wanted. A great deal of food would have to be left behind anyway.
The
Christmas feast began immediately and lasted almost all the next day as well. At
five-thirty the following morning they started over the ice and many of the
floes were rotten and saturated. The frozen snow-covered surface, however,
appeared deceptively sturdy. At each step it would seem capable of supporting a
man but just as he shifted his weight entirely he would burst through the crust.
The men pulling the boat sledges could take only about
Their position if anything was worse than it had been for
they had abandoned a good quantity of food stores in moving and they were now
camped on a waterlogged and unreliable floe. For three and a half months, with
starvation threatening, they were doomed to stay on this bit of ice aptly named
Patience Camp. As the weary vigil dragged on, Shackleton ordered the ration to
be reduced to one warm beverage a day — a helping of hot powdered milk at
breakfast. But providence never failed them altogether. They always managed to
kill enough seals to maintain a bare subsistence ration and on 19th February
thousands of migrating penguins suddenly appeared on the floe. During the next
three days the men were able to kill some six hundred of them for the camp
larder.
Late in
January a gale blew up from the south and carried them
All the
dogs except two teams had now been shot. The meager amount of blubber provided
by the penguins was nearly gone and on 16th March the last of their flour was
used up. On the morning of 23rd March, Shackleton, who was up early, saw a black
object far in the distance. It was one of the tiny
The truth
was that there was precious little land left that they had any chance of
reaching. They had drifted to the absolute cliff of the
In the
afternoon of 9th April the ice broke and they were able to launch their boats.
Five days later after battling against high seas and a never-slackening gale the
entire party landed on
Shackleton announced that he would take a party of five men and set sail in one
of their boats, the "Caird", for
Unfortunately they were on the wrong side of the
After nine days during which they recuperated from the
boat trip the three set out on 19th May. Thirty-six hours later they
reached the other coast achieving what no man has ever been able to do again by
that route though some have tried. At the whaling Station Shackleton obtained a
large wooden whaler, the "Southern Sky" in which to return to
Three
days out the "Southern Sky" encountered ice and although Shackleton tried
desperately to find a way through they never approached
They had improvised a hut by upturning the two boats and
had subsisted primarily on penguins most of their other supplies such as
powdered milk, nut food and tobacco had run out. But morale had remained high.
There had been no serious quarrels and the only major incident was the
amputation of five toes which had been frozen on the foot of the one stowaway in
the party. The men had nearly given up all hope of rescue however and were then
making plans to reach civilisation on their own.
Schackleton's feat in saving every man in his expedition
is the most extraordinary in the annals of polar exploration. Indeed polar
historians agree that what Shackleton set out to do which was to cross the
Antarctic Continent on foot was far surpassed by what he did instead.
Undaunted
Shackleton set out on a further expedition in
Acknowledgements:
"Signal" magazine
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shackleton: An Irishman in Antarctica
Jonathan Shackleton & John MacKenna (2002).
The Lilliput Press, Dublin, Ireland.
ISBN-10: 184351009X
ISBN-13: 978-1843510093
Founder of the Argentine Navy
Admiral William Browne
1777-1857
William Browne
was born in Foxford, Co. Mayo, in 1777. At the age of nine he was taken to
Philadelphia, and on his father's death, went to sea as a cabin boy on an
American ship.
He worked his way up from fo'castle to quarter deck and
arrived in Buenos Aires in the year 1812 as captain of his own ship.
For the next
two years he carried on trading ventures there. In 1814 the Patriot Government
asked him to fit out his squadron to fight the Spanish Navy which was then in
complete mastery of the seas of South America. Arming three old whaling ships he
surprised and defeated a Spanish Squadron of nine vessels and then, reinforced
by three other armed merchant ships, he forced the main Spanish Fleet of
thirteen warships into action. He sank or captured them and returned to seal
the fate of Montevideo, the last stronghold of Spain on the Atlantic seaboard.
Subsequently he organised and commanded the Navy of the infant Republic of the
Argentine. Working in close co-ope- ration with General San Martin, the
Liberator of the Argentine, Chile and Peru, he routed the naval forces of the
enemy in the Pacific as well as in the Atlantic, while San Martin defeated their
forces on land.
These two, San
Martin and Brown, established, by their
victories, the liberty of Argentina. After his defeat of the Spanish Fleet in
Rio de la Plata, he brought his ship around Cape Horn to the Pacific Coast where
he bombarded Callao and captured several Spanish ships off the coast of Peru.
He attacked the fortified sea port of Guayaquil almost single
handed and it was here his ship went aground and he was boarded by Spanish
Infantry. Brown, however sat over his powder magazine with a lighted torch in
his hand and gave the Spanish a choice of going shoreward or skyward. The
Spaniards took the safer course and Brown got away safely.
In 1826 the Republic was threatened by Brazil, and Brown won the decisive battle
of Juncal against heavy odds. He broke the Brazilian blockade of Buenos Aires
and destroyed the enemy in the Harbour of Montevideo with only two ships. He
entered the Harbour of Rio de Janiero and disorganised the enemy defences and
shipping.
In 1842 in the war between Argentina and Uruguay Brown, now over sixty years of
age, destroyed the enemy's navy. It was during this battle that he destroyed a
naval detachment at Costa Brava, commanded by Garibaldi, who afterwards won
fame in Italy.
For nearly forty years he kept the flag of Argentina flying, winning notable
victories for his adopted country both in 1826 and 1842. In his old age he paid
a visit to his birthplace in Foxford, and to the home in which he was born.
William Browne died in Argentina in 1857 and was buried in the Recoleta Cemetary
in Buenos Aires.
Click here for Photos
of the National ceremony held in Dublin
on the 22nd. June 2007
Irish
Mariners
JOHN BARRY
FIRST COMMODORE of the AMERICAN NAVY
John Barry, son of Catherine and John Barry of Tacumshane,
Co.Wexford was born in 1745 and received no formal education. He went to sea as
a cabin boy at a very early age and on a voyage to New England he decided to
remain there. He settled in Philadelphia in 1760 and as master of a merchant
ship he acquired considerable wealth. He was thus fully involved in the life of his adopted country and when the revolution
broke out he offered his services to Congress.
In February, 1776 he was appointed to command
the'Lexington', a brig armed with sixteen 4-pounder guns and on April 17th he
chanced to meet the English tender 'Edward' off the coast of Virginia. The
'Edward', which was only nominally a man-of-war, was poorly equipped for the
purpose of suppressing smuggling and was inadequately armed to take any
effective action against the attack of the Lexington'. She was overcome by Barry
and the 'Edward" became the first ship of war in American Annals to be captured
by the American Navy.
In 1777, while awaiting the completion of the 'Effingham'
Barry, at the head of four boats captured an enemy man-of-war schooner in the
Delaware after a courageous action. Finding that the ice on the river and bay
was preventing sailing and being unwilling to remain inactive, he joined the
army and fora short period he served as aide-de-camp to General Cadwalader and
rendered outstanding service in army action around Trenton.
Barry's success was rewarded by his appointment as
commander of the twenty-eight guns frigate, 'Effingham'. The frigate was then
being built at Philadelphia and was burned by the English in May 1778 before she
was ready to put to sea.
A few months later Barry was assigned to the 'Raleigh'
which had thirty-two guns and sailed from Boston on 25th September. He was
almost at once sighted by the 50-gun ship 'Experiment' under the command of Sir
James Wallace. Under pressure from the enemy Barry was obliged to run his ship
ashore in Penobscot Bay.
The English took possession of the 'Raleigh' and added her
to the British Navy in which the name has been perpetuated to the present time.
Early in 1781 he was appointed to the 'Alliance', a
frigate of
thirty-two guns, which had just returned from a very
remarkable voyage round the coast of Great Britain as one of the squadron of
ships under the command of Paul Jones.
Barry sailed for France carrying on board Col. Henry
Laurens of South Carolina, the new representative of the United States at the
Court of Versailles. On the return journey the 'Alliance' left Lorient on 31st
March and engaged in a fierce battle with the English privateer 'Atalanta' and
her consort, the Trespassy'.
In the encounter Barry was severely wounded in the
shoulder from a burst of grapeshot. On his return to America Barry received a
hero's welcome as he brought with him the two enemy vessels which he had
captured.
On 21st December of the same year he sailed again in the
'Alliance' from Boston, with the Marquis de Lafayette and the Comte de Noailles
on board, both of whom were returning to France on important public business. On
the return voyage Barry captured a number of enemy vessels including a vessel of
the same size as the 'Alliance' but this was re-taken by an English force of
superior strength.
Barry continued to serve with distinction during the war
and he is reputed to have rejected the most tempting offers from the British
Government and refused to turn traitor to the cause of his adopted country.
After the cessation of hostilities he was employed by the United States
Government to superintend the building of the frigate 'United States'. He
retained command of this vessel until after the accession of Mr. Thomas
Jefferson to the office of President when the 'United States' was laid-up.
When, in 1794 the American Navy was reorganised on
something like its present footing, Barry was placed at the head of the fleet as
commodore, a position which he held until his death at Philadelphia on 13th
September, 1803.
One of the most famous ships of all time was the "Great Eastern", a vessel which, for fifty years after her launching on 31st January 1858, was the largest ship in the world. Forever associated with that famous vessel and with the historic laying of world wide telegraphic cables is the name of Robert Halpin of Wicklow. At present a number of souvenirs of the "Great Eastern" and Captain Halpin are in the safe keeping of the Maritime Institute of Ireland and included in these is his uniform.
Great Eastern at north wall Dublin 1886. | Captain Halpin's uniform |
Robert Halpin was born in Wicklow on 17th March, 1836 and
went to sea at the very tender age of 10. Just twelve years later he was made
master of a Belfast-built steamship, "The Circassion".
Six years later, in 1864, he was appointed first mate of
the
"Great Eastern". This huge vessel was built at the Isle of
Dogs on the Thames. She was 692 feet long, had two sets of engines with a
strength of eleven thousand horse power and was designed to carry 4,000
passengers. She was described by some of the writers of her day as "The Wonder
of the Seas".
She had six masts and carried 6,500 sq. yards of sail in addition to two 58 foot paddle wheels. As a passenger ship she was a complete failure but she was subsequently to become a very successful cable-laying vessel and laid the first cable between Valentia, Co. Kerry and Newfoundland in 1866.
In 1869 Robert Halpin was appointed master of the "Great Eastern" and laid cables from Brest to Newfoundland and from Bombay to Aden and Suez. In the years 1873 and 1874 Captain Halpin made two further Atlantic cable voyages and connected Madeira with Brazil. Subsequently he sailed south and laid cable linking Australia, New Zealand and the Dutch East Indies.
Robert Halpin was a small man, but was nevertheless very
powerful and weighed 15 stone. He was very popular with his crew and was very
concerned for their welfare. On one occasion in 1866 on board the vessel a
sailor coming down from a high mast in a gale became terrified as he gazed down
on the open paddle engine hatch. He was 80 feet aloft and Halpin called out
"Hold on, I'm coming up". He climbed up the stay and clinging with arm and leg
placed the man's legs around his neck and brought him safely down to the deck.
As master of the "Great Eastern" he showed exceptional
qualities of courage and seamanship and gained for himself the respect and
admiration of his fellow mariners and of some of the leading figures of his day.
Among these was Jules Verne, who sailed with him on board the "Great Eastern" in
1867. Verne described Halpin as "a skilful, energetic seaman; he gave orders in
a clear, decided tone, the bosun repeating them with a voice like the roaring of
a lion". Apart from the great writer many other contemporaries were generous in
their praise of the Wicklow seafarer and today in his home town a monument
stands to remind its citizens of the great achievement of Robert Halpin and of
the honour he brought to his place of birth.
During his career as an ocean cable layer. Captain Halpin
was responsible for the laying of 26,000 miles of cable and when in 1874 the
Telegraph Construction Company launched a specially built cable-ship, "The
Faraday", the "Great Eastern" became obsolete. It was decided that the huge ship
should be laid up at Milford Haven and Captain Halpin was in command on her
final voyage from London to Milford Haven, a trip which took three days. There,
for the last time, Robert Halpin walked down the "Great Eastern's" ladder and
ended a partnership which had made shipping history.
JOHN HOLLAND
1841-1914
INVENTOR OF THE MODERN SUBMARINE
John Philip Holland was born in Co.Clare Ireland in 1841.
Having survived the famine
he joined the Christian Brothers in 1858, at the age of 17. There he met a monk
who was already working on a way to propel submarines by electricity. In early
1873 Holland left the Christian Brothers and sailed to America. Arriving in
Boston he met with Irish Americans and secured funding for his submarine known
as the Fenian Ram. Powered by an internal combustion engine and armed with a
single missile tube the trials were very successful. Unfortunately some of his
backers thought that the U.S. government were about to claim it, (and without
telling Holland) and in an attempt to hide it from them they damaged her and she
never sailed again. Holland decided to start building submarine torpedo boats
for the U.S. navy. After nearly 15 years of planning and different designs the
navy bought his sixth one in 1900.
Named Holland VI it was judged to be the Worlds first successful submarine.
Holland died in 1914.
John Holland’s First Submarine
To learn more about John Philip Holland please click here:
Thomas Charles James Wright
(1799-1868)
founder of the Ecuadorian naval school
He was an officer in Simón Bolívar's army and founder of
the Ecuadorian naval school, was born on
In November 1817 Wright enlisted as officer in the British Legion of Bolívar. He
sailed on the brigantine Dowson
with 200 other volunteers and valuable ammunition, and after a series of delays,
dangers, and adventures landed on
At Angostura (present-day Ciudad Bolívar), Wright first met Simón Bolívar, for
whom he quickly developed boundless admiration. His first action was at Trapiche
de Gamarra on
Wright played important roles in the battles of Pantano de Vargas and Gamesa in
July 1819, and in the decisive victory at Boyacá in August of the same year,
after which he was promoted to captain. In 1820 he was sent back with his Rifles
regiment to the coastal plain to operate in the jungle east of the
the Rifles participated on
Wright was sent to
The brigantine
Thomas Wright settled in
Wright took part at sea and land in the fighting that ended with the
delimitation of the Ecuador-Peru boundary, and he was specially commended by
He married María de
A military
plot in 1845 overthrew the liberal regime supported by Wright and he went into
exile in
Edmundo Murray 2006
Peter Campbell
naval officer and founder of the Uruguayan navy
naval
officer and founder of the Uruguayan navy, was born in
He was
notorious for his dexterity in gaucho-style
duel, wielding a long knife in one hand and using a poncho wrapped around the
other arm as a protective measure. He carried two riding pistols, a sabre, and a
large knife in a leather sheath for his personal protection, and was assisted by
a Tipperary-born gaucho
known as 'Don Eduardo'.
Peter
Campbell was responsible for establishing a regiment of mounted Tapé indigenous
people, who were feared both as a cavalry and infantry force because their
tactics were so difficult to counteract. Armed with rifles with long bayonets
attached to them, his indigenous force was trained to charge the enemy on
horseback at great speed before dismounting and opening fire with their rifles.
He became
naval commander-in-chief of the region and the scourge of the Paraguayan
dictator Francia's river fleet. On
However,
in the final naval battle against Monteverde on
Sir Frances Beaufort (1774 - 1857)
Francis Beaufort was born in 1774 in
Beaufort Scale of Wind
Force |
Description |
knots |
km/hr |
Sea
Wave height |
|
0 |
Calm |
<1 |
<1 |
Sea like mirror |
(metres) |
1 |
Light air |
1-3 |
1-5 |
Ripples |
0.1
(0.1) |
2 |
Light breeze |
4-6 |
6-11 |
Small wavelets |
0.2 (0.3) |
3 |
Gentle breeze |
7-10 |
12-19 |
Large wavelets, crests begin
to break |
0.6 (1) |
4 |
Moderate breeze |
11-16 |
20-28 |
Small waves becoming longer,
frequent white horses |
1 (1.5) |
5 |
Fresh breeze |
17-21 |
29-38 |
Moderate waves, many white
horses, chance of spray |
2 (2.5) |
6 |
Strong breeze |
22-27 |
39-49 |
Large waves, white foam
crests, probably some spray |
3 (4) |
7 |
Near gale |
28-33 |
50-61 |
Sea heaps up, streaks of
white foam |
4 (5.5) |
8 |
Gale |
34-40 |
62-74 |
Moderately high waves of
greater length |
5.5 (7.5) |
9 |
Strong gale |
41-47 |
75-88 |
High waves, dense streaks of
foam, |
|
|
|
|
|
spray may reduce visibility |
7 (10) |
10 |
Storm |
48-55 |
89-102 |
Very high waves, long
overhanging crests, |
|
|
|
|
|
visibility affected |
9 (12.5) |
11 |
Violent storm |
56-63 |
103-117 |
Exceptionally high waves,
long white foam patches |
|
|
|
|
|
cover sea |
11.5 (16) |
12 |
Hurricane |
64+ |
117& over |
Air filled with foam and
spray, sea completely white |
14 (-) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Speed = mean speed at a standard
height of 10 meters.
'Wave height is only intended as a guide to what may be
expected in the open sea.
Bracketed figures indicate the probable maximum wave
height.
Bartholomew Hayden, (1792-1857)
NAVAL OFFICER IN BRAZIL
Hayden, Bartholomew (1792-1857), navy officer in Brazil, was born in County Tipperary on 22 February 1792, the son of John and Joanna Hayden. Like many young men of his age, Hayden joined the armed forces of King George III of Great Britain during the Napoleonic Wars and served in the Royal Navy as a Midshipman for twelve years, from 1803 to 1815. Following the British victory over Napoleon, the Royal Navy was demobilised and reduced to a fraction of its former strength. There were jobs available for just 15 per cent of its former officers, but Hayden was one of the fortunate ones. In 1817, he was appointed senior Midshipman to the frigate HMS Andromache which was sent to South America as part of the squadron defending British interests during the wars of independence from Spain which were commencing in the Pacific.
In February 1821, Hayden moved to the HMS Conway, commanded by Captain Basil Hall FRS, as Second Master (that is,, Assistant Navigating Officer) when the two ships were in Peru. Hall was an enterprising and scientifically minded officer who on his return published a popular two-volume book detailing the Conway's activities in South America.
Hayden never did return home. Knowing that he lacked the necessary 'pull' to secure a further appointment in the navy, he resigned and, with the help of friends, purchased a brig called the Colonel Allen to pursue a career as a trader. Fortuitously, when Admiral Lord Thomas Cochrane, following his victories over the Spanish as Vice Admiral of Chile, was looking for a ship to take him to Brazil, Colonel Allen was the vessel he chose. The Brazilian war of independence against Portugal was then reaching a climax. The Prince Regent, Dom Pedro, had raised the standard of revolt against Portugal and been proclaimed Emperor a year earlier,
but enemy garrisons still occupied half of the country, and unless Brazil's newly formed navy could seize command of the sea, chances of success looked bleak. The Brazilian Government was desperately seeking ships and experienced officers and Hayden offered his services. His ship was purchased, converted into a man-of-war and renamed Bahia, while Hayden himself was appointed to the Brazilian Navy with the rank of Commander (Capitão-Tenente).
In that capacity, Hayden served with Cochrane, by now commander-in-chief of the Brazilian Navy, in his successful campaign against Portugal. Hayden was present when the enemy were driven from their principal base of Bahia in 1823 and back to Portugal, and he was active in the suppression of the dangerous republican rebellion in the north-east the following year. In command of the brig Pirajá during Brazil's two year war against Buenos Aires from 1826 to 1828, Hayden captured the Argentine privateer Libertad del Sur and was promoted to Captain of Frigate as a consequence.
Then,
transferring to the corvette Liberal in the inshore squadron blockading
Buenos Aires, he took part in the minor battles of Quilmes and Monte Santiago,
both of which inflicted serious damage on the Argentine naval forces led by a
fellow Irishman, Commodore William Brown. With the termination of the War,
Hayden was posted to the corvette Animo Grande as commander of the
Brazilian Naval Division of the East, which was deployed off Angola with orders
to help suppress the slave trade.
In June 1829, Hayden married Anna da Fonseca Costa in Rio de Janeiro, a marriage which produced five children. However the achievement of external peace was balanced by a sequence of internal rebellions within Brazil. In an optimistic moment following independence, the power of the central government had been deliberately weakened. Now, only the loyalty of the armed forces kept the country united. As commander of the frigates Imperatriz and Campista, Hayden was prominent in the suppression of the 'Cabanos' rebellion which afflicted Pará in 1835-1836.
As a reward, he was promoted to full Captain (Capitão-de-Mar-e-Guerra) in October 1836. In 1839, Hayden was given leave of absence from the navy to join a steam packet company as commander of the paddle steamer Maranhão. He returned to the navy in 1840 in command of the training ship Campista. He formally retired from service in 1842.
The spat of regional rebellions which had afflicted Brazil during the 1830s had, however, convinced the young Emperor Pedro II that a strong central government was needed and that an efficient and modern navy was vital to Brazil's internal security. Hayden's technical expertise was obviously valuable at a time when the Brazilian navy was taking on the challenges of steam power and new advances in weaponry. In 1849,
he was therefore restored to the Active List in the rank of Commodore (Chef-de-Divisão) and in 1851 became a member of the influential Naval Armaments Commission. Now aged sixty-six, Hayden's health began to deteriorate. He was granted sick leave to return to Europe temporarily in 1856 but was unable to return, dying at Portsmouth in southern England on 17 September 1857.