Don Miguel (surnamed the Usurper) had about the year 1826 assumed the government of Portugal. It is calculated that in the short space of five years he imprisoned 26,270 of his beloved subjects; 16,000 were transported to various places; 13,000 were forced to fly from his paternal government; 13,700 perished on the scaffold; and 5,000 were either in concealment or wandering about the kingdom to avoid a similar fate. Finally, Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, on behalf of his daughter Donna Maria of Portugal, took active measures to recover the throne. A number of British steamers were engaged as transports or privateers in the civil war that ensued. Amongst other vessels was the “ill-fated steamer”[16] RIVAL, which sailed from Greenock on the 22nd December, 1832, bound for Oporto, with about 400 volunteers for Dom Pedro, and foundered in Galway Bay, with the loss of nearly 500 lives. Some spars, bedding, and ship’s papers were washed ashore, but as not one of the passengers or crew escaped, no particulars can ever be known of the circumstances attending the fatal disaster. The LORD BLANEY was one of several of the St. George Steam-Packet Company’s vessels chartered for the same service. It appears from a record of magisterial proceedings (August, 1831) before Mr. H. Leach, of Milford, that the agents employed by Dom Pedro hired 200 seamen at Liverpool, and induced them to ship on board the LORD BLANEY, under a pretext that they were merely wanted to navigate British transports across the Atlantic, to convey some regiments of Portuguese from Rio de Janeiro to Europe; but no sooner had the LORD BLANEY got fairly into the Irish Channel than the officers threw off the mask, and acknowledged their destination to be Belle Isle, for the purpose of manning Dom Pedro’s fleet. Finding themselves thus entrapped, the seamen exhibited signs of mutiny, and a violent gale of wind having forced the steamer into Milford Haven for shelter, the whole body of tars went ashore with bed and baggage, declaring their intention not to fight under any flag but that of England. After completing her engagement with Dom Pedro, the LORD BLANEY was placed on the Liverpool and Newry service, and on the 18th December, 1833, she was lost with all hands (45) whilst on a voyage from Newry to Liverpool. A subscription list was opened for the benefit of the families and relatives of the crew and passengers. The City of Dublin Steam-Packet Co., although in active opposition to the St. George Steam-Packet Co., headed the list with the handsome donation of £100. Two, at least, of the City of Dublin Steam-Packet Co.’s vessels took part in the Portuguese war, the LEEDS and the BIRMINGHAM. The latter steamer, under the command of Captain Beazley, arrived at Falmouth about the 15th July, 1833. She brought despatches from Lagos which contained intelligence of the most important and decisive nature, nothing less than the complete defeat and capture of the fleet of the Usurper.