On This Day

HMVS VICTORIA sailed from Melbourne for service in the Maori War, in New Zealand. This was Australia’s first commitment of forces overseas. ...

HMCS VICTORIA, (screw steamer), joined the Australian Squadron, HM Ships IRIS, NIGER, CORDELIA, PELORUS, MIRANDA, HARRIET, and ORPHEUS, involved in the second Maori War. ...

CDRE F. B. P. Seymour, CB, RN, was appointed Commodore Commanding the Australia Station, his flagship was HMS PELOROUS. Seymour was a fighting officer, leading the naval forces in the ...

The Imperial Squadron on the Australia Station consisted of HM Ships IRIS, (26 guns sailing); PELORUS, (21 guns screw); NIGER, (14 guns screw); ELK, (12 guns sailing); and CORDELIA, (11 ...

CDRE W. Loring, RN, in HMS IRIS, offered to exchange Fort Macquarie for Garden Island as a base for RN ships in Australia. ...

CDRE William Loring, CB, was appointed Commodore commanding the newly established Australian Squadron of the Royal Navy, which became independent of the C-in-C, India. His Flagship was HMS IRIS, and ...

The Australia Station was established as a separate command. The Station was defined in a minute from the Admiralty: “Australia Station:- Bounded on the North by the Parallel of 10 ...

Boats from HMVS VICTORIA rescued the crew of the sailing vessel B. NORRIS, which caught fire and sank in Port Phillip. ...

The Victorian Government approved the building of a graving dock at Williamstown. ...

The hulk MELBOURNE was the first ship to be slipped at Williamstown Dockyard, VIC. ...

The Admiralty approved an expenditure of from £4000 to £6000 for rendering Garden Island, Sydney, available for the repair of HM ships. ...

The following ships were on the Australia Station:-Sailing vessels; IRIS, (26 guns), SAPPHO, (12 guns), and BRAMBLE, (tender).Steam screw vessel; CORDELIA, (11 guns). ...

HM Ships ELK, BOSCAWEN, and HMVS VICTORIA, searched Bass Strait and the south coast of Victoria for HMS SAPPHO which vanished without trace on a passage to Sydney. ...

The Naval Brigade from the screw corvette HMS PELORUS, (CAPT F. P. B. Seymour, RN), landed at Rangoon to garrison Meaday Fort. PELORUS was flagship on the Australia Station in ...

HMS PELORUS, (screw steam corvette), was commissioned at Plymouth, England, under CAPT Frederick B. P. Seymour, RN. PELORUS was flagship of the Australia Station in 1860, and during that year ...

HMVS VICTORIA, (sloop of war), trained her guns on prison hulks anchored off Williamstown, VIC, during disturbances following the murder of John Price, (Inspector General of Prisons), by convicts. ...

The sloop-of war HMCS VICTORIA, (CMDR W. H. Norman, RN), arrived at Port Phillip, Melbourne, VIC, on her maiden voyage from the United Kingdom. VICTORIA was proclaimed as the ‘first ...

The Williamstown division of the Victorian Marine Artillery Corps was formed to defend Port Phillip. ...

CAPT William Loring, CB, RN, commanded HMS FURIOUS in the attack on Kinburn Split in the Crimea. CAPT Loring was the Commodore Commanding the Australia Station from 1859 to 1860. ...

HMVS VICTORIA, (sloop of war), was launched on the River Thames, London. ...

HMCS SPITFIRE, (ketch), was launched in Cuthbert’s shipyard, Sydney. The vessel was described at the time as 65 tons displacement, 51 ft long, 16 ft 6 in beam, ketch rigged, ...

HMS BRAMBLE was loaned to the NSW Government as a diving bell tender at Cockatoo Island. In 1873 the vessel was reported as a light ship. It was finally sold ...

A special Admiralty committee examined the problems of manning the RN. Recommendations made by the committee led to wide-sweeping changes in 1853, which included the abolition of the press gang, ...

VADM Sir W. R. Creswell, KCMG, KBE, ‘Father of the RAN’, was born at Gibraltar where his father was the postmaster. ...