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- December 2023 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
The previous edition of this magazine contained an article on the remarkable relationship between the Queensland Mining Magnet William D’Arcy and Admiral of the Fleet Lord John (Jacky) Fisher. Towards the end of this story mention is made of HMS Dreadnought being christened by King Edward VII using Australian wine. As this has drawn some comment we offer the following explanation.
The famous battleship HMS Dreadnought was christened at Portsmouth Dockyard on 10 February 1906 by King Edward VII. Normally this honour goes to an esteemed lady but unfortunately Queen Alexandra’s father, King Christian IX of Denmark, had recently died and Her Majesty was in mourning. His Majesty performed the ceremony alone using a bottle of Australian wine but when King Edward first swung the bottle it bounced off the bow. At a second attempt it shattered and the wine splashed down the steel plates. With this the King cried ‘I christen you Dreadnought’, the band played ‘God Save the King’ and the assembled crowd gave hearty cheers.
Simon Smith, author of We sail the Ocean Blue, who conducted extensive research into the ceremony of launching naval ships says port wine was traditionally used but with the advent of railways far more people attended these ceremonies and with increased pageantry champagne with its effervescent bubbles was used for greater spectacle. As champagne bottles were heavier and harder to break they were weakened for this purpose by etching. Smith also states that colonial wines were used from 1901. From newspaper reports of those times we now examine the use of Australian wine.
Melbourne Argus 15 February 1901
Australian Wines – London 14 February
The Admiralty has decided to comply with a request to use Australian wine for the christening of British warships and has accepted an offer of wine for that purpose.
Adelaide – Thursday
The Premier, Mr. Holder, has received the following message from the Agent-General. ‘The Admiralty requests a supply of Australian wine for the ceremony of launching His Majesty’s ships.’
Some time ago Sir John Cockburn suggested to the First Lord of the Admiralty that it would be a gracious act if wine grown within the limits of the Empire were used in connection with the christening of men-of-war. The Premier thinks that the reason Sir John Cockburn made this announcement is that he expects that some of the Australian growers will make an offer of wine for the purpose.
Adelaide Register 26 March 1901
Colonial Wine for Christening Men of War
Our London correspondent writes by the mail received on Monday, under date 22 February, as follows: – ‘It is a little curious to reflect’ remarks a correspondent of The Times, ‘that of all the materials used in connection with the hundreds of vessels that at different times have been built for the British Navy one thing most consistently has been of foreign origin. The timber may have been grown in British forests, the metal have been won from British mines, the labour have been supplied by British hands, but the bottle of wine which, according to time-honoured custom, is broken on the ship as she takes the water and receives her name, must always have come from foreign countries, for the simple reason that until recent years wine, in the sense of the pure juice of the grape, has not been a product of Britain or of the British Empire. This, however, is no longer the case, thanks to the development of the natural resources of our colonies. Grapes flourish in many of our colonial dependencies, and both from the Cape and from Australia a growing export trade is being carried on in pure wines.
Launching of HMS Dreadnought at Portsmouth 10 February 1906, from an engraving by Norman Wilkinson.
Remembering this fact, the London representatives of certain of the colonies – it would, I have reason to believe, have been fairer and more accurate to have given the full credit of the idea to Sir John Cockburn – conceived the happy thought that the available produce of the British Empire might ‘fittingly be assisted in the naming of British-men-war for the foreign liquids hitherto employed’.
When the idea was brought to the attention of the Admiralty it met with a ready and sympathetic reception from Lord Selborne and the Lords Commissioners, and a few days ago the Agents-General had the gratification to learn that, most appropriately, it had been decided to make use of Cape wine in the ceremonial naming of HMS Good Hope, whose launch is expected shortly, and that in future launches of British warships the rite will be performed ‘with colonial, or, perhaps, it would be more proper to say Imperial wine’.
South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales are, it is believed, the only Australian colonies from which at present wine is a regular article of export; but if any others produce it also they will doubtless be admitted to share the same privilege. Such concessions on the part of the mother country, thought trivial in themselves, and of but little significance from a commercial point of view, yet have a distinct value of their own as a matter of sentiment, and form a graceful recognition of the unity of the empire, which cannot fail to be fully appreciated in our colonies. In pursuance of the arrangement referred to above, the wine used at the launch of the battleship Russell two or three days ago was drawn from a case of South Australian produce presented to the Admiralty by Sir John Cockburn.
Keeping up with production
During the early 1900s the Royal Navy was involved in a prolific rearmament program building ships from Glasgow and Newcastle in the north to Chatham and Plymouth in the south. Were these major events employing many thousands also a great advertising opportunity for colonial products?
The battleships HM Ships Dreadnought and Russell and the armoured cruiser HMS Good Hope were christened using colonial wine. In addition, the battleship HMS Albermarle and the armoured cruiser HMS Bacchante were christened at the same time using colonial wines. Examples of these events are as follows:
HMS Russell launched on 19 February 1901 from Palmers Shipbuilding & Iron Company, Jarrow-on-Tyne (launching lady unknown) using Australian wine.
HMS Good Hope launched on 21 February 1901 by Mrs Ethel Elgar, the wife of the manager of the Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company of Govan, using Cape wine.
HMS Bacchante launched on 21 February 1901 from John Brown on the Clyde (launching lady unknown). Good Hopeand Bacchante were launched within two hours of each other from adjacent Clydeside yards.
HMS Abermarle launched on 5 March 1901 by Lady Kennedy, the wife of Admiral Sir William Kennedy C-in-C the Nore, from Chatham Royal Dockyard.
HMS Dreadnought was launched much later on 10 February 1906 by King Edward VII from Portsmouth Royal Dockyard using Australian wine.
The Australian Squadron
With Federation the Commonwealth soon established its own naval squadron, the first-born was the destroyer HMAS Parramatta, launched on 9 February 1910 by Mrs. Margot Asquith, wife of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, using Irvine’s (Victorian) champagne. The battlecruiser and flagship HMAS Australia built by John Brown Clydebank was launched on 25 October 1911 by Lady Reid, wife of Sir George Reid Australian High Commissioner in London and former Prime Minister, using Australian wine.
The Admiralty must have received an, assumedly free, supply of wine from both Australia and South Africa in early 1901 for the purpose of christening future HM ships. And that the prize, by just two days, for being the first to break the French monopoly was a good drop of Aussie red. Which is perhaps surprising as South Africa was producing superior quality wines, as we learn that during Napoleon’s exile to St Helena (1815-1821), he greatly enjoyed the vintage of the sweet red ‘Groot Constantia’ as did many of the noble houses in Europe. From the 1830s South Africa supplied as much wine to Britain as France but this tapered off in the early 1900s with a glut of South African wine depressing prices.
Australian Wine Makers
The first recorded export of Australian wine was made by the renowned agriculturist and explorer Gregory Blaxland. Blaxland brought cuttings of vines with him from the Cape which flourished on his land in the Parramatta district. In 1822 he returned for a visit to England taking a ‘pipe’ or large cask of his red wine which won a silver medal and later in 1828 his wine won a gold medal. It should be mentioned that at this stage many Australian wines were fortified by up to 10% of imported French brandy and blended with small amounts of Cape and Spanish wine to improve their characteristics.
With a small but growing export trade in the early 1870s two companies Auld & Burton (later Emu Wines) and P. B. Burgoyne & Co established wine merchant businesses in London. With the main producers being Hardys, Penfolds and Seppelts. Changes in British import duties from 1886 made colonial wine more competitive with foreign imports which allowed Australian imports to flourish. From these small beginnings Sir John Cockburn was able to convince the Admiralty to accept colonial wines as the preferred medium used in the christening of His Majesty’s ships.
Ship Naming Traditions
Wines being exported at this time were thought to be mainly full bodied ruby red known as Australian burgundy. The pageantry associated with ship launching declined with the impacts of the Great War, the subsequent Depression, and rapid decline in shipbuilding. As yet we have been unable to establish when the system of supplying colonial wines to the Admiralty ceased.
The Royal Naval Historical Branch confirm that there is no particular folklore with regard to the choice of one liquid over another. Over the Royal Navy’s long history, champagne has not always been used and Nelson’s era likely used brandy or madeira.
In recent times, champagne has traditionally been used for the bottle smash during a Ship Launch or Naming Ceremony. Submarines traditionally use bottles of ‘home brew’ beer.
One notable exception to the champagne tradition was HMS Sutherland in 1996, when Macallan Single Highland Malt whisky was used. Whilst this was unusual, it was justified due to the ship’s strong Scottish connections, including her Scottish dukedom name and affiliations to Sutherland and Scottish regiments.
There are no other records of whisky being used until the Royal Navy’s latest large ships the aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales were built at Scotland’s Rosyth Dockyard: the former named by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth on 4 July 2014 and the latter by Camilla Duchess of Rothesay (later Queen Camilla) on 8 September 2017. In both cases a bottle of Islay Malt Whisky supplied by Bowmore Distillery was used in the ceremony.
In continuing the break with tradition, on 21 March 2019 the patrol vessel HMS Tamar was christened in Glasgow by Lady Brigitte Peach using a bottle of sparkling wine produced by ‘Camel Valley’ in Cornwall.
Summary
While the story of providing colonial wine to satisfy the needs of the Royal Navy is incomplete it did succeed in bringing these wines to the notice of the important British public. After the First World War they found a niche market as lower cost and patriotic alternatives to European wines. Following an interruption caused by the Second World War there was a vast increase in the import of New World wines which has been of huge economic benefit to Australian and New Zealand producers.
References:
Anderson, Kym, Growth & Cycles in Australia’s Wine Industry, University of Adelaide Press, 2011.
Smith, Simon Mark, We Sail the Ocean Blue: British Sailors & Imperialism c1890–1939, PhD thesis, University of Portsmouth, September 2017.
Trove, Australian newspapers as mentioned above.