Lithographic print depicting the sinking of the East Indiaman ‘Fame’

Sir Stamford Raffles and his wife embarked on the East India Company vessel ‘Flame’ on 2 February 1824 from Bengkulu, Sumatra on their final journey back to England. That very evening, the ship caught fire due to a steward’s carelessness. Raffles and his wife were evacuated safely, but the fire destroyed Raffles’ extensive collection of Malay Archipelago maps, dictionaries, vocabulary lists, histories, manuscripts, books, natural history drawings, and specimens of plants, birds and animals.

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Pamphlet describing the destruction of the Fame

Raffles’ account of the loss of the Fame titled “Ship on Fire” reproduced in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction

Print of the bust of Sir Stamford Raffles

Lithographic print depicting a slave market in Timor