Rangoon from the Anchorage

Officers such Kershaw were trained soldier-artists who made on-the-spot sketches of what they surveyed. Kershaw was part of the 11,000 strong force led by Sir Archibald Campbell that captured Rangoon in 1824.

He wrote: "On first nearing the anchorage off Rangoon, the eye is highly gratified by the novel and singular appearance of numerous golden spires rising abruptly from apparently impenetrable wood; and the effect caused by an eastern sun is such as fully to compensate to a lover of the picturesque for the view on arriving at the anchorage, where there is little to interest the spectator beyond the jettee or wharf." On cool evenings in Rangoon, the officers of the combined force used to gather on the wharf, exchanging news or collecting supplies from the ships that anchored close to the wharf because of the rapid tides.