Isabella de Franca is rowed by night

Isabella travels by boat from Funchal at 4 in the morning:

"There lay our four-oared boat, into which all our traps were soon packed, and then two of the men holding the rudder by the ends, I stepped upon it, and was lifted to the height of the boat's side, from whence I descended at once into my seat. Jose followed, with two of the men, the other two gave two or three heavy pushes to loosen the boat from the stones, and as she floated out jumped on, took their oars and seats, and in a moment, as if by magic, we were dancing upon the starlit sea. Never shall I forget the beauty of that night!"

Isabella arrives in Funchal

When they arrived at Funchal, Madeira in 1853, Isabella de Franca and her husband had to land by boat. They were swung from the ship to the boat in a chair, which Isabella found alarming but exciting:

"I was very much scared at being hoisted out of the ship, to hang over the sea, and then be swung back again and dropped into the boat; but when the Captain had packed me up safe, wrapping a Union Jack round my legs and fee, I shut my eyes and before I was aware of having moved, felt a hand and heard a voice in the boat, into which I had thus rapidly and silently descended. In a minute were were both comfortably seated, with our friend and a Custom House Officer in charge of our luggage; and a beautiful row we had..."

Her watercolour doesn't show the chair: presumably it was used only to load the outermost of the wherries which are moored three abreast against the ship. One lady is being carried on the shoulders of a beefy sailor, stepping from boat to boat with casual confidence, despite the nasty chop that is sending waves almost to the gunwales of the boats.
Dangling in a chair over the ocean, even when draped in a Union Jack, is not exactly a stylish arrival but much more memorable than staggering into the airport terminal from the EasyJet plane.