Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10734
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‘Javanese and wounded Shark’
Date
1806
Creator
Thomas Medland (1755 - 1827, British) , Engraver
After
William Alexander (1767 - 1816, British) , Painter
Object type
Library reference
26670
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 212mm
width (print): 276mm
width (print): 276mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Scene showing a Javanese canoe almost overturned by a hooked shark.
Plate 8 from the book A voyage to Cochinchina, in the years 1792 and 1793...to which is annexed an account of a journey, made in the years 1801 and 1802, to the residence of the chief of the Booshuana nation...southern Africa...by John Barrow (London, 1806).
Printed below: “Drawn by W.Alexander Engraved by T.Medland Javanese and wounded Shark. Published June 4, 1806, by Messrs.Cadell & Davies, Strand, London”.
John Barrow’s voyage to southern Vietnam (Cochinchina) was undertaken as the preliminary to Lord Macartney’s Embassy to China. The scene depicted here is described in accompanying text: “When on board the Hindostan...I hooked one of these voracious animals from the stern gallery, in doing which, however, I had a very narrow escape from being dragged by it into the sea...a poor Javanese...who happened at that moment to be astern of the ship, paddling his canoe with a load of fruit and vegetables. His apprehension lest the wounded shark, in rolling and plunging and lashing the water with fin sand tail, should overturn his little skiff...struck our fellow traveller, Alexander, so forcibly that, though of momentary duration, he caught with his pencil a spirited sketch...”
John Barrow (1764-1848) was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1805.
Plate 8 from the book A voyage to Cochinchina, in the years 1792 and 1793...to which is annexed an account of a journey, made in the years 1801 and 1802, to the residence of the chief of the Booshuana nation...southern Africa...by John Barrow (London, 1806).
Printed below: “Drawn by W.Alexander Engraved by T.Medland Javanese and wounded Shark. Published June 4, 1806, by Messrs.Cadell & Davies, Strand, London”.
John Barrow’s voyage to southern Vietnam (Cochinchina) was undertaken as the preliminary to Lord Macartney’s Embassy to China. The scene depicted here is described in accompanying text: “When on board the Hindostan...I hooked one of these voracious animals from the stern gallery, in doing which, however, I had a very narrow escape from being dragged by it into the sea...a poor Javanese...who happened at that moment to be astern of the ship, paddling his canoe with a load of fruit and vegetables. His apprehension lest the wounded shark, in rolling and plunging and lashing the water with fin sand tail, should overturn his little skiff...struck our fellow traveller, Alexander, so forcibly that, though of momentary duration, he caught with his pencil a spirited sketch...”
John Barrow (1764-1848) was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1805.
Associated place