The largest dry dock of its era in the Southern Hemisphere.
H.M.C.S.NELSON was originally launched in 1814 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. She was laid up incomplete until work recommenced during the Crimea War. Again the work was not completed due to the cessation of hostilities. In 1860 she was converted to a screw steamer, cutdown to a two decker and in 1865 given to the Colony of Victoria to be used as a training ship. She was the first vessel to use the Alfred Graving Dock.
 
Published in The Australasian Sketcher. 1874.
 
Wood engraving.
 
330 x 227 mm.
 
Wood engravings were first produced in Europe in the fifteenth century. During the late eighteenth century the process was reintroduced and used for inexpensive illustrated books. The nineteenth century publishing phenomena of the illustrated newspaper was made possible by use of the technique. The process allowed for the illustration and the text to be printed by a single pass through the printing press using the letterpress method.  It also made it possible for several engravers or even a team to produce and work on a single illustration at the same time.

All the major artists of the period contributed to the illustrations. Some papers acknowledged the artists on the plates but The Australasian Sketcher appears to have had a policy of anonymity. Where known, we have included the artist’s name.