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Lot Essay
H.M.S. Nassau was a wooden screw gunvessel built at Pembroke Dock in 1866 but completed as a survey ship. Displacing 877 tons, she measured 185 feet in length with a 28½ foot beam and carried a complement of 90 officers and men. Her first commission (1866-69) was to re-survey the Straits of Magellan and the passage north into the Pacific, after which, in 1870, she was sent out to the China Station under a new commander William Chimmo. Mostly engaged on deep-sea soundings and sub-surface temperature measurements, she was then sent to East African waters for more survey work in 1873, briefly returning to the China Station prior to being broken up in 1880.
The P. & O. steamer Deccan was built by Denny Bros. at Dumbarton in 1868 having been laid down as Magdala but purchased on the stocks for £125,900. Registered at 3,128 tons gross, she could steam at 13 knots and carried accommodation for 175 1st and 52 2nd class passengers. Placed in the company's Suez to Calcutta service, she maintained regular sailings on this run until 1889 when she was sold to Indian owners for the Mecca pilgrimage trade.
The P. & O. steamer Deccan was built by Denny Bros. at Dumbarton in 1868 having been laid down as Magdala but purchased on the stocks for £125,900. Registered at 3,128 tons gross, she could steam at 13 knots and carried accommodation for 175 1st and 52 2nd class passengers. Placed in the company's Suez to Calcutta service, she maintained regular sailings on this run until 1889 when she was sold to Indian owners for the Mecca pilgrimage trade.