Darkness Gallery

The Battle of Pacocha'; Action between HMS Shah and Ameth

Engraving showing the battle between HMS Shah and Amethyst and the Peruvian Ironclad turret ship Huascar on the 29th May 1877. The Huascar had been taken over by some Peruvian revolutionaries and declared a pirate by the Peruvian government. The Shah and Amethyst were ordered to protect British Merchant Shipping and after the Huascar had stopped several British merchant ships, the Royal Navy decided to hunt down the Huascar'. In the action depicted, the 70 guns of the British ships were unable to do much damage to the Huascar as she was an heavily-built ironclad. In return the gunnery crew of the Huascar was not well drilled enough to hit the British ships much. In desperation the Shah launched a Whitehead torpedo at the Huascar, but the Peruvian ship was able to dodge it with some ease. The battle became a stalemate and the two sides slipped away after the fall of darkness. Reputedly this was the last action by a wooden warship, firing a broadside of muzzle-loading guns and the first use of a torpedo in anger

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Gas Stokers strike 1872

Political disturbance in the industrial south-eastern districts of Victorian London involving Trade Unionists, striking to assert their rights. Illustration showing Victorian people in darkness, going back to candles and finding things much harder than they have become reliant on.
November 1872

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

God Surya. 9th-10th centuries

Surya, the Sun God, depicts riding a chariot drawn by seven horses, holding two lotus flowers. At his feet, a female figures, goddesses of dawn and dusk, driving away the demons of darkness with bow and arrows. Detail. 9th-10th centuries. Pergamon Museum. Berlin. Germany

© Thaliastock / Mary Evans

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