Page 330 - Beholding Liberty!

330 BEHOLDING LIBERTY!
II.8.C.3
A. Mayer (unidentified artist)
Explosion of the brig “Panagiotis” on 5th November 1827
coloured lithograph, 47,5 x 64,5 εκ.
signed: Dessiné par A. Mayer. (bottom left) Imp. par Lemercier. (low centre) Lith. par A. Mayer et Sabatier _ Fig.
par Bayot. (bottom right) Paris. _ Bulla et Delarue, éditeurs, 10, rue J.J. Rousseau. (bottom left) London _ pub. 15 October by the Anaglyphic Company, 25 Berners S.t Oxford S.t (bottom right)
inscribed: Episodes Maritimes. (top centre) EXPLOSION DU BRIG LE PANAYOTI / Commandé par l’Enseigne de Vaissaeau Bisson. / le 5 Novembre 1827. / 9 (low centre)
Hellenic Parliament Art Collection, inv. n. 594
AN IMPRESSIVE DEPICTION OF a ship explosion in an engraving printed in colour by the famous Parisian printing house Lemercier. This ep- isode is part of a series on related naval subjects. It depicts the explosion of the brig Panagiotis, on November 5, 1827, by Captain Bisson, who had its gunpowder magazine blown up, although he had seized the vessel, as it risked falling into the hands of pirates. Bisson was patrolling against pirates off
Astypalea; he died in the explosion. The Panagiotis was destroyed, alongside the two pirate ships which had approached the brig.
The achievements of the Greeks at sea, especially the heroic burning of Turkish ships and the deci- sive Battle of Navarino, a great victory for the Al- lied fleet, made images of naval warfare from the Greek seas particularly popular with the public.