for which Parliament voted £20,000, in order to test the navigability of the Euphrates. The Euphrates Expedition The expedition arrived in Malta on 12 March 1835 on the Georges Canning and left on 21 March 1835 in order to transport all the materials and construct both iron steamers in the Bay of Antioch. It took a little over a year to render the steamers into floating shape so "as to put the expedition in motion". The 16 March 1836, Chesney's forty-seventh birthday, was picked as the date of the first trial voyage for the Euphrates. After the habitual morning service, the king's commission was recited, listing the purpose of the expedition and praising "his dear and powerful ally", the Sultan. Indeed, good relations with the Arabs were essential for a successful descent of the Euphrates. They were also crucial to the preservation of a fixed service along the river that might make Russia hesitate before invading Iraq. As the Euphrates commenced her voyage, William Francis Ainsworth, the appointed surgeon and geologist of the expedition, mused that "the scream of the startled pelican or the gurgle of some large siluroid wallowing in the waters, was no longer necessary to break the silent ripple". At their first point of anchorage in Beles, they undertook trials of the two vessels under controlled conditions with and against the current. The Tigris trials were disappointing but the Euphrates ones were very satisfactory. The expedition's progress was overall leisurely and stops were made in several cities along the way for wood, fuel as well as historical research. On Saturday 21 May the expedition left the town of Saliggye and Chesney remembered later that the weather that morning was "very fine and promising". But a few minutes later, black clouds in the sky presaged an approaching storm. Indeed, the vessels were caught by a terrible hurricane. In his personal narrative of the events, Ainsworth recorded that "a warm dry wind, laden with the fragrance of the aromatic plants of the wilderness, followed in a few instants by a tremendous blast of wind, with some rain in large drops". After twelve minutes, the storm abated and the Tigris was nowhere to be seen. The following three days were spent in vain searching for more survivors and trying to locate the sunken vessel. By that time, Chesney had to disclose to his crew that he had been given orders