Sailor’s Woolwork of Hms Meeanee Outward Bound, Year 1862

Sailor’s Woolwork of H.M.S. Meeanee Outward Bound, Year 1862.

The British sailor’s woolwork or woolie depicts a starboard view of the H.M.S. Meeanee outward bound passing a lighthouse as she sets out to sea leaving an unknown port on a wavy sea depicting with bands of different blues and white. She flies the red ensign and a red banner used to message sailors that their hip was leaving port.

Along the lower section is a wide silk band with the following: H.M.S. Meeanee. Outward. Bound, Ye(a)r 1862.

Dimensions: 15 1/2 inches high x 21 3/4 inches wide x 1 inch deep.

There are, as seen, various small minor losses.

Now within Museum UV Conservation Glass.

H.M.S. Meeanee was a two-deck 80-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 11 November 1842 at Bombay Dockyard. She was named after the Battle of Meeanee. The Meeanee had originally been intended to be named the Madras, and retained the figurehead of a native of Madras, though it was no longer appropriate. The head builder at the H.E.I. company dock and shipbuilding yard was Cursetjee Rustomjee. She sailed from Bombay for England in August 1849 with Persian artefacts for the British Museum.

The Meeanee was a Vanguard Class ship was fitted with screw propulsion in 1857. The London Times on Wednesday 31 December 1856 wrote that she was in Sheerness- The new ship Meeanee, 80 guns, is in No. 2 dry dock, being altered to receive screw steam machinery.

From late 1862, H.M.S. Meeanee was commanded (until paying off at Sheerness) by Captain George Wodehouse as part of the Mediterranean Fleet.

In 1870 she was a hospital ship moored in the center of Hong Kong Harbor tending to the British Army.

She was broken up in 1906.

The Battle of Meeanee.

Sir Charles Napier led a small force of 2,500, consisting of native infantry and cavalry and one British regiment, The Cheshire Regiment, against the Baluchi Army of the Ameers of Scinde. The desert fortress of Emaun Ghur was destroyed and then, on the 17th February 1843, Napier’s small force defeated 30,000 Baluchis at Meeanee. A month later the Baluchis were defeated again at Hyderbad. The province of Scinde fell into British hands and the Cheshire Regiment gained the honours of Meeanee, Hyderbad and Scinde. The honours of Meeanee and Hyderbad are shared with some Indian Regiments.
(https://www.military-art.com/mall/battles.php?BattleID=41)

(Ref: NY10338-icca)