British Expedition to Abyssinia to Ethiopia. In 1999, several prominent figures in England and Ethiopia created the Association For the Return of the Magdala Ethiopian Treasures (AFROMET) which has pursued an information and lobbying campaign to see all treasure repatriated back to Ethiopia. Tewodros had asked his wife, the Empress Tiruwork Wube, in the event of his death, to put his son, Prince Alemayehu, under the protection of the English. This decision was apparently made in fear that his life would be taken by any aspirant for the empire of Abyssinia. In accordance with these wishes, Alemayehu was taken to London where he was
SS Abyssinia All five of the new Cunarders on this route were quickly rendered out of date by White Star's revolutionary "Oceanic" of 1871. For example, "Abyssinia" and her sister burned 90 tons of coal per day as compared to 58 tons for "Oceanic". While Inman and other rivals quickly installed compound machinery and modified passenger quarters to match White Star's new fleet, Cunard did not. Finally, in 1879 the privately owned Cunard line was reorganised as a public stock corporation to raise the capital needed to rebuild the fleet. On the other hand, "Abyssinia's" near sister, "Parthia" did utilise compound machinery.