HMS SIRIUS

Our First Gardeners

September 27, 2016

By Norman Rivett

Who were they?

The first garden from which Garden Island derives its name commenced here on Monday the 7th of February 1788 when a party from HMS Sirius landed on the island. An entry in the ship’s log for that date states: Sent an officer and party of men to the Garden Island to clear it for a garden for the ship’s company. Only two weeks before, on 26 January, Sirius had first ventured into Port Jackson. So it can be seen the continued supply of fresh produce was high on their list of priorities.

There is no indication who the officer or the men were or how many were involved, but one thing is certain, Frederick Meredith was not one of them for he did not transfer as an Able Seaman to Siriusfrom the transport Scarborough, where he had been a Captain’s Servant, until 2 May 1788. However, Meredith’s association with Garden Island is assured by him carving his initials and the date 1788 into a sandstone rock on the northern hillock, which remains there to this day. Nearby two other sets of initials, I R and W B, again with the date 1788, are also carved into the rock but the identity of the carvers remains a mystery.

The names of three early gardeners are however known, not so much for their gardening prowess as for having come to the attention of the Judge Advocate, Lieutenant David Collins. He was not the only person interested in their activities as, on 19 February, seventeen Aboriginals in four canoes landed on the island and carried off a valuable haul of five iron shovels, a spade and a pickaxe. Francis Hill, a Master’s Mate, ordered a Marine to fire upon the legs of the intruders with small shot. The locals then fled and the spade and pickaxe were retrieved. The Aboriginals may have felt aggrieved at sharing their resources as Collins says that the native name was ‘Booroowang’ meaning fishing place.

On 26 May 1788 Marine John Atwell and Seaman James Coventry were tried for assaulting and dangerously wounding another Seaman, James McNeal. These men from Sirius had been sent to the island to tend the garden and they all lived in a hut that had been built; the first reference to a building on the island. On the evening preceding the assault they had been issued with a week’s allowance of spirits with which they became intoxicated and quarrelled. The pair was found guilty and each sentenced to receive 500 lashes. Surgeon John White reported that Atwell and White did not receive their full sentences as they were weak, both suffering from scurvy.

There is no natural source of fresh water on the island and this presented problems. It has been suggested that a well was dug but there is no evidence of this. The area available for cultivation was relatively small, confined to level ground between two prominent hillocks at the narrowest part of the island. The footprint of the original garden is said to have been approximately 145 feet (44.2 m) x 160 feet (48.8 m).

Another early tiller of the soil was the convict John Caesar, better known as Black Caesar, a 24 year old Jamaican servant who had been sentenced to seven years penal servitude and transportation for stealing the then significant sum of £12. Landing from the transport Alexander he quickly proved troublesome and in June 1789 was put to work, in irons, on Garden Island. Later allowed to work without chains; stealing a canoe and a musket he escaped. He lived with Aborigines but was speared in a dispute and forced to give himself up, and was then sent as a prisoner to Norfolk Island. Upon return to Sydney Cove, Caesar was released and given a small grant of land. But it was not long before the old habits of robbery and theft returned and he became notorious as our first bushranger. With a price of five gallons of rum placed on his capture, on 15 February 1796 he was shot and killed by a settler near present day Strathfield.

Ships Coming and GoingT

Early photograph of Garden Island circa 1890

The first entry of the name in the log of Sirius is of ‘The Garden Island’ suggesting the island had not been officially named at that time.

And Lieutenant Collins, in his narrative An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales dated 18 February 1788, refers to ‘the island where the people of the Sirius were preparing a garden’. In a similar manner, a Midshipman in Sirius, Daniel Southwell, in a letter to his mother dated 19 February 1789 mentions: ‘having left a man to look after a kind of kitchen garden to the service of HMS Sirius’

Early settlers variously referred to this place as ‘Sirius Island’ or ‘Sirius Garden Island’, but this would have declined after the namesake ship was wrecked off Norfolk Island in 1790. When survivors from Sirius returned to Port Jackson most eventually returned to England aboard the chartered Dutch ship Waaksamheyd but a few remained in the colony and continued to tend their garden.

HMS Supply (I) of the First Fleet had returned to England in late 1791 and the following year was sold out of service. A second HMS Supply (II) arrived in the colony in 1795. Possession of the island passed to HMS Supply(II), but this ship was soon condemned as unseaworthy and her ship’s company transferred to HMS Buffalo which became the senior ship on station after her arrival in May 1799.

HMS Reliance, commissioned to replace HMS Sirius, arrived at Port Jackson in September 1795. Amongst her passengers and crew were the new Governor, John Hunter, Midshipman Matthew Flinders, Surgeon George Bass and the returning Aboriginal celebrity Bennelong.

It was during the tenure of HMS Supply (II) that the first substantial building was erected on the island. This was situated on the gentle slope of the southern hill just beyond the garden and intended as a dwelling house for Lieutenant Braithwaite of HMS Reliance. When Braithwaite returned to his homeland the house was occupied by Dr Brandt, an eccentric scientist, who had recently arrived in the colony with a baboon and a dog. Later the occupant of a now dilapidated cottage was a Mrs Winch who reared poultry on behalf of Governor Hunter’s household.

The stores ship HMS Porpoise, arrived in November 1800 carrying a selection of useful plants under the care of a professional gardener, George Suttor. Suttor and his plants had been chosen with the assistance of Sir Joseph Banks. In favour of his passage and a land grant, Suttor tended the plants during the voyage. Many plants failed during the voyage and replacements were obtained at the Cape.

In 1801, the Admiralty despatched HMS Investigator commanded by the now Lieutenant Matthew Flinders to complete surveys and scientific investigation of Terra Australis. Sir Joseph Banks was consulted on the choice of scientific staff to accompany Flinders. These included the astronomer John Crosley, a botanist Robert Brown, and his assistant Peter Good who was a gardener. During the voyage, Crosley fell ill with rheumatic pain and gout and was discharged when the ship reached the Cape. It was in Investigator that Flinders completed the first circumnavigation of the continent, returning to Port Jackson in June 1803. The ship was then considered unseaworthy and Flinders and most of his crew transferred to HMS Porpoisefor return passage to England. Unfortunately in August 1803 Porpoise was wrecked on the Barrier Reef, however Flinders and most of the ship’s company were rescued.

When HMS Buffalo returned to England in 1807, the need for a separate ship’s garden had greatly diminished as by this time vegetables could be readily obtained from market gardens on the mainland. Accordingly, Navy relinquished tenure of the island. During the administration of Governor Macquarie, on 7 September 1811, a notice appeared in the Government Gazette incorporating Garden Island into the Government Domain. It was not until 1851 that the Navy made a tentative return to the island, but this time as surveyors.

Garden Produce

Limited information has been found as to the crops grown on the island, although there is a report of the first crop of corn and onions harvested in July 1788. It is a reasonable hypothesis that those tilling the soil would have recourse to the same variety of seeds that Lieutenant King took to Norfolk Island in February 1788 when establishing a settlement. In King’s diary, under the date 23 July 1788, he records that upwards of 1,000 cabbages of five varieties had been planted and that turnips, carrots, lettuce, onions, leeks, parsley, celery, corn, artichokes and beet were all in a thriving state.

We also hear from Marine Captain Watkin Tench, a keen observer of life in the first settlement, who says that Reverend Richard Johnson was the best farmer in the colony. Johnson came from a farming family with whom he worked until gaining a scholarship to undertake theological studies at Cambridge. Once he had a cottage in what is now Bridge Street, he assiduously established a kitchen garden and cultivated vegetables including potatoes, Indian corn, cabbages, turnips, beet, cucumbers, water melons, pumpkins and peas. Sometime later, upon receipt of a land grant and convict labour, he successfully experimented with quantities of wheat, Indian corn, tobacco and grape vines. The reverend gentleman is also credited with being the first to establish a variety of citrus fruit with oranges and lemons, and guavas grown from seeds obtained in Brazil during the outward voyage. It is assumed that stock for many vegetables either came from the same source or from the Dutch at the Cape. Johnson was able to feed his family relatively well during the subsequent famine and share his largesse with the sick and other disadvantaged members of his flock.

Tench also comments upon the poor sandy soil found at Sydney Cove and the richer soils at Rose Hill (Parramatta) where more abundant crops were produced. While little mention is made of native plants, the same author notes that by 1790 bananas were introduced from Norfolk Island. It was not until February 1791 that the convict farmer James Ruse, who had been given a land grant at Rose Hill, was able to demonstrate the successful and sustainable cultivation of commercial quantities of wheat and maize.

Returning to the island at the time of HMS Porpoise, an inquest was held on the island by the Provost Marshall on 2 April 1803 into the death of a native who was fatally shot while pilfering produce from the garden. It was found that his canoe was ‘full of maize and melons, etc.’ Unfortunately, there is no further explanation as to the meaning of ‘etcetera’.

The Surveyors

The selection of the island as a garden for Sirius was probably made during surveys of Port Jackson by Captain John Hunter and Lieutenant William Bradley which commenced on 28 January 1788. Use of the island by Sirius was approved by Governor Arthur Phillip on 5 February 1788.

James Inman arrived in Sydney Cove in April 1803 to join HMS Investigator which arrived two months later. He had been appointed by the Board of Longitude to assist Lieutenant Flinders as astronomer as a replacement for John Crosley. Inman had with him several astronomical and navigational instruments including Kendall’s famous timepiece ‘K3’. While waiting for his ship he set up a tent observatory on Garden Island.

When Flinders took passage to England in Porpoise, James Inman remained behind with most of his instruments to await passage in an available merchantman. The pioneering botanist Robert Brown also took a later safe passage together with Inman. Inman was to become professor of mathematics at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth. He is best remembered for Inman’s Nautical Tables known to generations of seafarers.

The professional gardener, Peter Good, had collected a large number of seeds and live species of Australian plants. He sent most of his seed collection to England aboard the returning whaler Speedy which left Sydney in June 1802 and arrived safely, with the precious seeds cultivated at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Investigator returned to Port Jackson on 9 June 1803; sadly Peter Good died of dysentery three days later, a disease he had contracted when at Timor. His collection of live plants placed aboard Porpoisewas lost when the ship was wrecked two months later.

Amongst Investigator’s crew during her circumnavigation was an amusing and colourful character, the Aboriginal Bungaree who was also known as the ‘King of Port Jackson’. Towards the end of his life he lived in a cave (now demolished, near the commercial ferry wharf) at the northern end of Garden Island and he died there on 24 November 1830. He was buried at Rose Bay next to his wife ‘Queen Gooseberry’.

Copy of plan of Garden
Island dated 1852

There is an interesting plan of Garden Island dated August 1851, produced by a survey party living in tents adjacent to a boat cove on the western side of the island, and two water tanks are shown on the eastern side. The height of the northern hill is shown at 79 feet (24.1 m) and the southern hill at 21 feet (6.4 m). An observation spot is marked by a stone cairn with its position recorded as latitude 33 degrees 51 minutes and 45 seconds South and longitude 10 hours 10 minutes and 5 seconds East (152 degrees 31 minutes and 15 seconds East) also noting a Deviation of 62 degrees 41 minutes South and Variation of 10 degrees 10 minutes East. The plan has the initials A. F., with a later endorsement in 1852 by Captain B. Drury. A subsequent observation spot taken from an 1857 survey by HMS Herald and now referred to as the Established Observation Spot is near the centre of the original garden area with a flagstaff slightly to the north of it.

The 1851 plan also shows the site of a tomb. The island had been a favourite recreational spot of Judge Advocate Ellis Bent who died in 1815. He was initially interred in the old burial grounds which later became the site of Central Railway Station. In 1823 his remains were removed to Garden Island and covered by an elaborate monument. In 1825 his great friend Major John Ovens was buried in the same tomb. With excavations taking place for an expanded naval base, in 1866 the remains of both men and their monument were relocated to St Thomas’ Rest Park in North Sydney.

In researching shipping records we find that in July 1851 the survey ship HMS Acheron, under command of Captain (later Admiral) John Lort Stokes, RN had undertaken extensive surveys of the New Zealand coastline and was in Sydney awaiting the arrival of her relief HMS Pandora. Owing to budgetary constraints the Naval Hydrographer had decided that Acheron,which was expensive to maintain using NSW coal, was to be laid up and replaced by a smaller and more economical sailing vessel. Most of Acheron’s officers and crew had paid off but she remained on station with a reduced complement, under command of Lieutenant Lambert, ex HMS Calliope, and undertook limited duties.

HMS Pandora commanded by Commander (later Admiral) Byron Drury, RN arrived in Sydney on 26 July 1851 and left for New Zealand in late August. Surveyors from Pandora therefore had ample opportunity to undertaken a small survey of Garden Island. The auxiliary paddle sloop Acheron was later laid up at an anchorage near Garden Island and put to auction on 30 April 1855 where she was knocked down to Messrs G. V. Lloyd & Co for the sum of £2,150.

HMS Herald had a long and eventful career. In 1840 as a 28-gun corvette she carried Commissioner (later Lieutenant-Governor) William Hobson in gaining acceptance of Maori chiefs to the nationally important Treaty of Waitangi. Later, when converted to survey duties, she conducted surveys of the Australian coast and Fiji islands. In December 1857 Herald was the first ship to enter the Fitzroy Dock at Cockatoo Island.

The Australia Station and a Naval Base

With the establishment of an independent Australia Station in 1859 there came plans for a permanent naval base, but it was not until January 1865 that Garden Island was again dedicated for the use of HM Ships. In a similar timescale a much-needed graving dock for naval ships was being constructed at Cockatoo Island; it opened in 1857, with New Zealand’s Calliope Dock opening in 1888.

Over the next century and with the impact of two world wars the naval base and associated dockyard quickly grew to absorb much of the island. With completion of the Captain Cook Graving Dock in 1942, geographically it became a larger isthmus and no longer an island. While space has been at a premium, much of the northern hill has been retained as a recreational and nature reserve. There are grassed areas surrounded by shade trees which were enhanced by plants and flowers. This new form of garden was well maintained by a small permanent workforce but with economies of outsourcing these quite remarkable gardens which form a backdrop to the Naval Heritage Centre, and are open to the public, have deteriorated.

The First Gardeners Remembered

As the nation’s first centre of horticulture it is perhaps time to recognise this important contribution with some prominent memorial to the first gardeners and the site of our first garden. Any improvements that might be made to the restoration of the existing formal garden would also be advantageous. Surely the time has now come to recognise the names of Able Seamen James Coventry and James McNeal, Marine John Atwell and Convict John Caesar.

Dangers to Navigation

September 25, 2012

By Lieutenant Commander Tony Maskell, RAN (Rtd)

OVER THE YEARS since the arrival of the First Fleet there have been a number of notable shipwrecks. Examples can be found from the earliest times to the recent grounding of a container ship off the north island of New Zealand. While not related to our region, the tragic loss of a large cruise ship off the Italian coast on a fateful Friday 13th of January 2012 is a reminder to all of Dangers to Navigation.

The common denominator was that all went ashore, when this should not have happened. In the early examples of sailing vessels there is some excuse with their restricted manoeuvrability, unsurveyed areas and a lack of charts, but prudent seamanship might have saved some of them. In other cases, prudent seamanship was still a factor, though weather stress also played a part. In more recent examples, prudent seamanship was definitely missing, and in one case ‘too many cooks spoilt the broth’. In the 18th century, most ships relied on fairly simple navigation equipment -the compass, unreliable charts, a lead line, perhaps a barometer and a sextant. In addition, naval ships most likely had a chronometer, a larger and more experienced crew, and most importantly good lookouts. By the middle of the 20th century, there were gyro compasses, radar, radio beacons, echo sounders, very good charts, navigational directions, well trained and certificated watchkeeping officers, but still they needed experience and a good lookout. In the 21st century we have GPS -Global Positioning System -giving an instant location of a ship on the surface of the world to a very small tolerance of distance. But ships still founder. Here are a small number of them from our local region and all taken from peacetime experiences.

HMS Sirius – Norfolk Island – 20 March 1790

Sirius, the flagship of the First Fleet, had arrived in 1788 and remained under the control of the Governor of New South Wales. She was an ex-merchantman of 512 tons burden, fitted with 10 guns and a crew of 160 men, and commanded by Captain John Hunter, RN. Both Sirius and her consort the smaller HMS Supply had been sent from Port Jackson to establish a settlement at Norfolk Island. A total of 275 men, women and children were to form the new settlement which in turn would relieve the pressure on Port Jackson, which was running short on provisions. Arriving off Norfolk Island in bad weather they were unable to land at the intended settlement site of Sydney Bay, accordingly they sailed around to Cascade Bay where most of the settlers were landed over two days. However, the weather worsened, and the two ships put to sea, reappearing off Sydney Bay three days later. Here Supply managed to discharge her stores. Sirius came into the Bay and was brought head to wind, but did not anchor. Just as the longboats were being loaded Captain Hunter found his ship was rapidly being set towards the reefs. Sirius tacked to remain clear, but the wind shifted again moving her towards danger. The anchors were let go, to no avail, and she was driven onto the reef. As soon as she ran aground as much as possible was thrown overboard. A make shift ‘breeches buoy’ was set up by floating ashore a barrel with a rope attached, which was made fast to a Norfolk Pine, and all the crew scrambled ashore. No human lives were lost. In the following weeks she was stripped of everything including the above-waterline timbers, to be used at the settlement. The loss of this ship was very serious both for the settlement at Norfolk Island and that at Port Jackson, since she was the primary means of communication with the rest of the world and the provider of replacement food and stores desperately needed in both locations. A subsequent court martial at Portsmouth in 1792 held that Captain Hunter and his men had done everything they could to preserve his ship and he was honourably acquitted.

HMS Pandora –Great Barrier Reef – 29August 1791

Pandora was a 24-gun sixth rate ship of 524 tons burthen under the command of Captain Edward Edwards, RN. She had a complement of 134 men, plus 14 mutineers captured from HMS Bounty. While the new colony of New South Wales was grimly hanging onto the eastern seaboard of Terra Australis, the Admiralty had sent a ship to find and apprehend any mutineers from Bounty. Fourteen men were taken into custody at Tahiti and placed into a makeshift quarter deck prison known as ‘Pandora’s Box’. The ship then spent another three months searching islands in the south west Pacific without finding any other mutineers. Fletcher Christian and his accomplices remained relatively safe on the then unknown Pitcairn lsland. Pandora’s secondary mission was to chart Endeavour Strait between northern Australia and New Guinea. Heading west from the Solomon Islands they encountered the eastern edge of the Great Barrier Reef on 25 August 1791, and then headed in a southerly direction seeking an opening. Three days were spent in this search and at night the ship retired out to sea.

At last finding a gap, the ship’s yawl was launched to take soundings in a place now known as Pandora’s Entrance, some 200 km south of Cape York. As Pandora had already lost two boats with 14 crew, she could not afford any further risks and as dusk approached Captain Edwards ordered the return of the yawl to his ship. As this was being done the ship struck a coral outcrop, however with a rising tide the ship was released and was able to anchor at about midnight. The hull was badly damaged and despite attempts at lightening ship and making repairs she quickly sank, with the loss of 31 crew and 4 prisoners. The remainder made their way safely to Timor, using the ship’s boats. At a later court martial Captain Edwards and his officers were exonerated from the loss of HMS Pandora.

HMS Porpoise and the ship Cato Great Barrier Reef – 17 August 1803

Following his great work in exploring and charting the Australian coastline, Matthew Flinders intended returning to England in his ship HMS Investigator, but as she was considered incapable of the voyage he transferred as a passenger in Porpoise, sailing in convoy with the ships Cato and Bridgewater. On the night of 17 August 1803 Porpoise grounded on an uncharted Barrier Reef shoal. To warn her consorts she fired a gun, but this was too late for Cato who also grounded. Bridgewater managed to veer clear but continued on her voyage; on reaching India she reported the loss of the other ships. Both stranded vessels quickly broke up, but their crews scrambled on to the sandy cays. With no sign of rescue Flinders and the master of Cato, together with 12 seamen, took the largest of the salvaged ship’s boats (named Hope) in which they reached Port Jackson. A rescue mission reached the reef on 8 October and saved the crews from both ships, with only three lives being lost. Flinders was given command of the colonial schooner Cumberland to resume his homeward passage. With this small 29-ton vessel, in poor condition and running short of provisions, they were forced to put into the Île de France. The French Governor repudiated the safe conduct of Flinders and he, his crew and ship were placed under arrest. It was another five years before the release of Flinders, with Cumberland having the distinction of being our first ship lost as a prize of war.

SS Runic –Middleton Reef – 19 February 1961

Runic was a large well found twin screw refrigerated cargo ship of 13,587 grt of the Shaw Savill & Albion line, normally employed on voyages from the United Kingdom to Australia and New Zealand. Under the command of Captain Sendall she had a crew of 72, plus two passengers and the wives of two officers. The ship sailed from Brisbane for Auckland; the Captain was determined to arrive in Auckland before a competing German vessel could take the single available berth. The weather at the time of sailing was heavy drizzle and ominous clouds. These conditions precluded the taking of any sights of the sun or stars so that the ship was running on ‘dead reckoning’ to determine her position, but she was heading straight for Middleton Reef, roughly 120 miles north of Lord Howe Island. Travelling at 17 knots, she hit the edge of the reef with her bow held fast and the after part of the vessel in deep water. A ‘MAY DAY’ distress call was sent out, however a quick survey indicated that the hull was relatively undamaged. Unfortunately over the following days the weather deteriorated and the ship began pounding onto the reef. Another merchant ship, Brighton, stood by for three days but was unable to close the reef because of storm conditions. Later HMAS Vendetta and two tugs from Sydney arrived in an attempt to salvage the vessel. Up to this stage the crew had stayed aboard and assisted in trying to salvage the ship. Other Shaw Savill & Albion ships Alaric and Illyric brought pumps and supplies and fuel from Newcastle. Five weeks after the grounding kedge anchors had been laid and tugs secured to pull her off the reef at the next high water. Before this was possible another storm arrived and dashed all hope of refloating Runic. Huge seas swung her further on to the reef, tearing open the hull. Over the years further storms have taken their toll and only a small portion of her remains above the sea. However, her presence did not stop the trawler Fuka Maru grounding on the reef and becoming a total wreck.

HMS Nottingham – Lord Howe Island – 7 July 2002

Nottingham, a Type 42 destroyer of 4,820 tons displacement under the command of CMDR Richard Farrington, RN with a complement of 285 sailed from Portsmouth on 18 March 2002 for a nine month Far East deployment. Since work up a number of recent changes had been made to key personnel; the Executive Officer (XO), Navigating Officer (NO) and three bridge watchkeepers were all new.

Nottingham sailed from Cairns for Wellington with passage planned to transit the Great Barrier Reef with an en route recreational visit to Lord Howe Island. Planning for an anchorage at Lord Howe lacked detail and little account appears to have been taken of the nearby Wolf Rock. This rock is named after the ex-Royal Naval brig Wolf which, working as a whaler, sank after striking the then uncharted reef in August 1837.

After anchoring, the XO and a number of the ships’ company went ashore using boats and the ship’s Lynx helicopter. A long swell coming from the south caused difficulties in operating the Lynx and the helicopter was waved off three times when trying to land on deck. At 1941 the Lynx did land and returned the XO to the ship, when the CO then decided to proceed ashore giving temporary command to the XO. The Captain had spoken with the PWO and the OOW before going ashore about the possibility of weighing anchor to reduce the roll of the ship in order to recover the Lynx. Later the XO made his way to the bridge, to commence weighing anchor and getting underway. The NO gave instructions to the OOW to run a track in the vicinity of the anchorage while awaiting the return of the helicopter. After running at 12 knots for 28 minutes the ship altered course to join the track to Wellington; the new course was not checked for hazards, either visually, by radar or on the chart.

With the Lynx now approaching and after discussion between the Bridge and the Operations Room it was decided to alter course 90 degrees to recover the helicopter. The ship was now 2 nm away from danger, the helicopter landed at 2153 and minutes later the ship went aground. Immediately following the stranding, the Captain was on the bridge with the XO close behind. The ship took a list of 10 to 15 degrees to starboard, engines were rung for full astern for one minute then slow astern. When judged safe, just before midnight, the ship was anchored.

On 9 July HMNZ Ships Endeavour and Te Mana arrived off Lord Howe and an RAN Clearance Diving Team was flown in, all rendering valuable assistance. After extensive survey and emergency repairs, with a badly damaged bow, the ship was towed stern first to Newcastle and later to Sydney Harbour where she was loaded onto a semi-submersible heavy lift ship for a voyage to Portsmouth. Repairs took more than one year at a total cost of £40M. An inquiry was held onboard HMNZS Endeavour, followed by a court martial in England where the Captain, XO, NO and OOW all pleaded guilty to their part in causing the ship to run aground, and various sentences were issued.

MV Pasha Bulker–Newcastle – 8 June 2007

Of all the ships mentioned the Pasha Bulker will be remembered as she potentially could have caused serious disruption to our largest exporting port but thankfully she was ‘the one that got away’.

Pasha Bulker was a 76,741 dwt Panamax bulk carrier built in Japan in 2006 by Sasebo Heavy Industries. While Japanese owned she was operated under a Panamanian flag by the Danish company of Lauritzen Bulk Carriers. She had a crew of 22 men.

The ship was one of 56 moored off the coast awaiting coal loading berths when a storm warning was issued suggesting they proceed to sea. Pasha Bulker, together with 10 other ships, did not heed the warning. When the storm hit she started to drag her anchor and was unable to raise power quickly enough to clear the coast. The ship ran aground off Nobbys Beach near the entrance to the major coal exporting port of Newcastle. With the help of a salvage crew this nearly new ship was refloated on 2 July and towed into Newcastle Harbour for emergency repairs and then towed to Japan for major structural repairs. Perhaps with a touch of naval irony the ship has been renamed Drake. Charges against the Master did not proceed as there was reasonable doubt that negligence could be proved.

*Pasha Bulker* aground Newcastle Newcastle Herald

MV Rena – Astrolabe Reef – 5 October 2011

Rena was a Panamax container ship of 38,788 grt, built in Kiel Germany and since 2010 owned by Daina Shipping and registered in Monrovia; she had a crew of 25 men. Her engines were coupled to a single propeller providing a speed of 21 knots. On a five-year charter to the Mediterranean Shipping Company the ship had sailed from Napier for Tauranga with 1,368 containers, eight of which contained hazardous materials. The ship was carrying 1,700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and 200 tonnes of diesel oil. In clear conditions on the evening of 5 October 2011, proceeding at full speed, Rena struck Astrolabe Reef in the Bay of Plenty only a few miles from her intended destination.

The Captain and Second Officer, who was the officer of the watch at the time of the grounding, were arrested by New Zealand authorities and charged with operating a vessel in a manner causing unnecessary danger or risk. It is believed that for some unexplained reason the ship had deviated away from its planned route, a factor which should have been known to an experienced watchkeeper.

The incident aroused considerable media attention regarding possible damage to local beaches, fauna and fishing grounds. Most of the oil was successfully removed from the ship and some containers were recovered. Following storm action on 8 January 2012 the ship broke in two and a few days later the stern section sank.

Rena aground – Asrolabe Reef New Zealand Herald

Conclusion

Human error appears a factor in all the incidents mentioned in these examples of Dangers to Navigation and in many instances prudent seamanship could have saved a ship. Perhaps the lessons learned from the Nottingham court martial should ring in our ears where the President stated: ‘The most important message from this court martial is that the highest navigational standards must be maintained at all times to ensure safety at sea. They are ignored at our peril.’

The Norfolk Island Museum and HMS Sirius

March 3, 2012

By Lisa Richards – Curator Norfolk Island Museum

We are pleased to continue a series on maritime museums and in this edition we are grateful for these articles by Lisa Richards on the importance of Norfolk Island to our maritime heritage. Norfolk is one of the richest sources of material from the early colonial period with the first settlers landed from HMS Supply on 6 March 1788 and two years later on 20 March 1790 there was the catastrophic wrecking of HMS Sirius upon the reef while landing supplies for the island. Added to which there is a strong Bounty connection with the arrival of descendants from the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian wives in 1856. All these events are still remembered and celebrated today.

The Museum

Norfolk Island will be holding two significant anniversary events early this year, the first on 6 March marks the arrival of Lieutenant Philip Gidley King, who was later to become Governor of New South Wales, and the second on 20 March marking the fateful wrecking of HMS Sirius. Keen observers will note that one of Sirius’s anchors and a cannon are to be found in Sirius Place a few minute’s walk from Circular Quay and that two small cannon which were brought out by Sirius but not part of the ship’s armament are located outside the Clock Tower Building at Garden Island. These were intended for the defence of the colony and were at one time located on a battery at the northern end of what was then Sirius Garden Island.

For such a small island, Norfolk Island has some amazing stories to tell. Famous for its colourful history, the island was first settled in 1788 and later became a convict hellhole. Since 1856 it has been home to the descendants of the Bounty mutineers.

The Norfolk Island Museum collections cover material from four distinct periods:

Polynesian Settlement 700-1450
First Settlement (penal) 1788-1814
Second Settlement (penal) 1825-1855
Third Settlement (Bounty mutineer descendants from Pitcairn Island) 1856 to present.

Our location is enviable! We are housed in a total of six buildings in the World Heritage Listed, Kingston and Arthur’ Vale Historic Area (KAVHA). These buildings date from 1825 and are built on the ruins of structures that date from 1788.

The Museum was established in 1988 with Bicentennial funding to open a Maritime Museum. This museum proudly displayed the newly recovered HMS Sirius artefacts. Other museums to open included a house museum restored to 1844, a social history and archaeological museum. Today we receive up to 20,000 visits each year from travellers to the island, many of whom have come to see the place where their convict ancestors lived. For more information on our collections and exhibitions please visit www.norfolkislandmuseum.com.au

HMS Sirius

On 19 March 1790 HMS Sirius, flagship of the First Fleet and the only means of contact with the outside world for the new settlements at Sydney Cove and Norfolk Island, was wrecked on the coral reef off Slaughter Bay. She had led the fleet of eleven ships that set out from England in 1787 carrying the people who would start a new nation on the other side of the world. In a sense, the Sirius is Australia’s Mayflower. She was a vitally important ship to the settlements struggle for survival in their new, isolated home and her loss was devastating.

The Sirius’ story is in two parts: the first is of her loss, and the second of modern day recovery of the shipwreck material.

At the time of its wrecking the Sirius accompanied by HMS Supply, the smallest of the First Fleet ships, was on a desperate mission. Since the First Fleet’s arrival in 1788 both communities had lived not far from starvation. In late 1788 Captain John Hunter had taken Sirius on a voyage to Cape Town for supplies. However by the end of 1789 Sydney Cove was still starving. On this, its last mission, Sirius was sent to the Chinese port of Canton to obtain food and supplies. To relieve the pressure 275 people (116 convict men, 67 convict women, 27 children and 65 marines) with some food, were to be transferred to Norfolk Island.

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Obituary: Geoffrey Ingleton 1908-1998

June 27, 1998

One of Australia’s foremost maritime historians, Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Ingleton RAN (Ret.), who has died aged 89, was also an accomplished marine artist and etcher, and a fine cartographer.

Geoffrey Chapman Ingleton was born in Baimsdale, Victoria, and at the age of 13 entered the Royal Australian Naval College, then situated at Jervis Bay. After being commissioned as a lieutenant, he was assigned to the hydrographic service and served in HMAS Moresby surveying waters to the north of Australia.

Ingleton is best remembered through his many writings as a historian of early Australia. But he was also a superb craftsman of marine models and was commissioned to build two large models of the First Fleet vessels Sirius and Supply. Both of these fine models can be found in the Powerhouse Museum.

His etchings of the very early contacts Europe had with Australia evoke the rigours of life in colonial Australia. His marine etchings, and portrayals of early Sydney life were grounded in exhaustive research and knowledge. Ingleton’s major resource in these endeavours was a very extensive private collection of books, manuscripts, maps and paintings on early Australia, including many rare and original editions. He was a passionate collector of books and manuscripts, most of his library having been sold by the Sydney auctioneers Lawsons in a series of sales throughout the 90s.

At a sale held in December 1991, a very rare copy of the album Australian Views of the North-East Coast, with 13 lithographic prints and dating from about 1847, sold for $20,000. The original ship’s log of the Alligator, dated 1838, brought $16,500. A signed letter by Matthew Flinders to J.W. Croker, then the First Secretary of the Admiralty, dating from 1811, sold for $5,000. Reporting the sale of the Ingleton library in 1991, the Herald noted soberly that “unlike some of the high-flying entrepreneurs whose paintings have glutted the art market, Mr Ingleton is not selling out of necessity.

“As he notes in the catalogue preface, this section of his library had grown considerably over the years, and now, at the age of 83, he feels it’s simply time to sell. Mr Ingleton, who began collecting around 1926 while serving as a midshipman in England, said that he regards the extremely rare books relating to the explorer Phillip Parker King as the high points of the sale“. “I kept them to try and do a biography on the life of King‘ he said. But he was exhausted after finishing his biography of Flinders,” the Herald, 1991 report noted.

Astonishing though his library was, Ingleton’s own writings were themselves exemplary. Among the books he wrote, or compiled, were Charting a Continent, a history of the surveying and mapping of Australia’s coasts and his magnum opus, Matthew Flinders, Navigator and Chartmaker, the final portions of which were written during a period of declining health. To the public, he is probably better known for his third book, True Patriots All. Its subtitle said it all – News from Early Australia as Told in a Collection of Broadsides Garnered and Decorated by Geoffrey Ingleton.

Published in 1952, the book was described by a Herald reviewer as “admirable“. It set out in excruciating detail the often-appalling conditions of convict life in early Sydney. “As a result, the white-washers and ‘good-old-days’ addicts will probably not find this book acceptable reading“, the Herald said. “Those who wish to learn something of Australia’s early days cannot afford to miss it, however, for it is a major contribution to Australiana. It is an item for collectors“.

The Bulletin was not so sure. “Mr Ingleton’s book“, said the reviewer, “diverting as it is in Newgate-calendar style, fails in balance, since it paints mainly one side of the picture and not always the most interesting one“.

True Patriots All and Ingleton’s many historical articles in the Herald and elsewhere helped to increase awareness of our past. His illustrations for a private edition in 1949 of Robert D. FitzGerald’s Heemskerck Shoals are regarded as his major artistic work. The edition, one of Australia’s finest private press printings, was sold to subscribers for the impressive sum of £35; The Bulletin called it magnificent.

Ingleton married first, in 1935, Josephine Weekes (marriage dissolved); they had two children who survive him – a daughter Michal (better known as the author Kelly King) and a son, Nicholas. In 1953 he married Nan Furness, the poet, who also survives him.

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HMS Sirius – Australia’s First Flagship

March 12, 1994

H.M.S. SIRIUS features prominently in our Australian history as she served as Governor Phillip’s flagship, and the guardship to the First Fleet of eleven ships when our nation commenced in 1788.

She was launched in 1780 under the name BERWICK for use in the East India trade. In 1781 the British admiralty purchased her for use as a naval store ship, and she was rated as a “sixth” rate. This meant she was a minor class of warship as the “first-rates” were the best and biggest ships carrying the most guns.

After making two voyages to the West Indies she was laid up but in 1787 she was recommissioned under the command of Captain Phillip and renamed SIRIUS. Phillip had been appointed the first governor of New South Wales on October 12, 1786; he was an excellent choice, being a good and proven leader and was one of the few senior naval officers with experience in agriculture.

Having been damaged by fire, SIRIUS was repaired and her original profile altered. It seems her hull height was raised and her top deck made flush or level fore and aft. Her tonnage was said to be 612 tons or 520 tons. This lower figure may have been the weight of the original BERWICK.

H.M.S. SIRIUS carried four boats and was armed with ten guns, four six-pounders and six carronades. Phillip had ten more guns placed aboard but these were put in the hold and were landed in Sydney to be placed in a fort erected in 1788 on the east side of Sydney Cove.

Her sail rigging was similar to other ships of her type. The foremast and mainmast both carried three square sails. On the rear or mizzen mast it seems there was only one square sail, this mast having a fore and aft sail like the smaller sails near the ship’s bow.

H.M.S. SIRIUS’s hull was well built of teakwood and her bottom was covered in copper. She was painted bright yellow with a broad black band near the waterline. Her extreme length was about 132 feet, height from keel to upper deck 26 feet, loaded draft 17 feet, height of mainmast above the deck 122 feet and her best sailing speed about seven knots.

The First Fleet sailed from Spithead, England on their remarkable voyage to commence a new southern nation on 13th May, 1787. This voyage lasted over eight months and much credit must be given to Phillip that out of more than the 1,300 people carried, only forty died.

On its way to Australia, the fleet visited Santa Cruz, Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town for fresh supplies, water, etc. The fleet arrived at Botany Bay on January 20, 1788 which was the original site for the new colony. However, due to lack of good water and Sydney Harbour being a far better site, the fleet moved to Port Jackson on 26th January.

H.M.S. SIRIUS remained in Port Jackson until the 2nd October, 1788 when she sailed for Capetown for more provisions. In this remarkable voyage she sailed right around the world being the first to do so in the famous sailing ship belt of westerly winds known as “the roaring forties”. On this voyage SIRIUS sailed south of New Zealand and eastwards, past Cape Horn to Capetown arriving approximately 2 January 1789. On her return trip she left Capetown on 20 February, 1789, sailing eastwards again until she reached Port Jackson on May 8, 1789.

Of interest on this voyage, when she was south of Tasmania on April 22 in a storm, her figure-head was washed away and she was badly damaged forward. But for Captain Hunter setting more sails, she would have been blown ashore and wrecked.

SIRIUS again remained in Port Jackson until the 7th March, 1790 when she left on her last voyage which was to Norfolk Island to land marines, convicts and stores.

The island was reached on March 13, unloading at Cascade Bay took place on the 13th and 14th of March after which the passengers walked across the island to the settlement at Sydney Bay. Heavy weather then kept the SIRIUS at sea for four days, but when it improved on the 18th, Captain Hunter lay off Sydney Bay on the south side of Norfolk to land the provisions.

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HMS SIRIUS

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