Our First Patrol Boats – Part 2

Author

A.N. Other

Subjects

Biographies and personal histories, Ship histories and stories, History - pre-Federation

Tags

Solomon Islands, Patrol Boat

RAN Ships

None noted.

Publication

June 2023 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)

By Walter Burroughs

The December 2022 edition of this magazine contained an article Our First Patrol Boats concerning a class of five topsail schooners built in Sydney in the 1870s, mainly for patrol duties in the Pacific Islands. Coincidentally the Australian Naval Institute newsletter of 19 February 2023 has an article by Professor Clive Williams titled Massacre of Naval Personnel in the Solomons 1880 which again refers to these vessels and in particular the observations of Admiral Sir Reginald Tupper, who served in them as a junior officer.

Largely based upon these works and newspaper records from these times we can glean further information on the rationale for these versatile small craft and their characteristics and operations.

The Beagle-class armed schooners

The Beagle-class topsail schooners¹ were built in response to a public outcry at the murder of the highly respected and well-connected Bishop Patterson by natives of the Santa Cruz Islands (Solomon Islands) on 20 September 1871. Doctor Patterson was Bishop of Melanesia, spreading the gospel through the establishment of missions amongst the peoples of South Sea islands. While trying to land over a reef on an island of the Santa Cruz Group his boat was attacked by natives who fired poisoned arrows resulting in the injury of three men and the deaths of Bishop Patterson and the Reverend Joseph Atkin. Captain Jacob of the mission ship Southern Cross who later reported the incident thought the reason was in revenge for the recent taking of men from the island by slave traders.

Realising their mistake, the islanders recovered the body, wrapped it in woven mats, placed it in a canoe and set the canoe adrift for its final voyage on the ebb tide. Bishop Patterson is officially classed as being buried at sea. As a memorial to his martyrdom the church of St Barnabas was erected to his memory on Norfolk Island.

John Coleridge Patterson was the elder son of Judge Sir John Patterson and his wife Frances Coleridge, a niece of the poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He had been educated at Eton and Oxford and attained eminence both as a scholar and a sportsman. He spoke German, Hebrew and Arabic and in later life was able to converse to his flock in several Melanesian dialects. As a Bishop he fought against what he saw as the deplorable trafficking and exploiting of human beings in remote South Sea islands for the benefit of plantation owners, mainly in Queensland and Fiji. The untimely death of this highly respected 43-year-old man of God aroused intense public opinion in a predominately Christian society demanding that Imperial and Colonial authorities should take concerted action to suppress the slave trade.

Moving with great haste, in less than a year the Admiralty purchased an almost new schooner-rigged yacht Ethel and refurbished her as a model for a new class of patrol vessels. In August 1872 she was commissioned as HM Schooner Alacrity. She was joined shortly afterwards by others in her class comprising the locally built Beagle and Sandfly launched in December 1872, Renard launched in January 1873, and finally Conflict launched in February 1873. Alacrity retained her original raked bow and white hull but did not have the carrying capacity of the later vessels which had blunt bows; however, she could outsail her sisters.

Commodore James Graham Goodenough RN

On 22 May 1873 command of the Australia Station was given to Commodore James Goodenough. He was a pious gentleman who came from a family of senior clerics. Unusually amongst senior officers of those days he abstained from alcohol and was frugal in his ways, but well-liked by the lower deck. In a tragic incident, almost identical to that involving Bishop Patterson, on 12 August 1875 while attempting to land on the Santa Cruz Islands his boat was attacked by natives firing poisonous arrows. The Commodore and two sailors were struck and later died aboard his flagship HMS Pearl. Commodore Goodenough refused to allow a single life to be taken in retaliation, although native villages were burnt.

HMS Sandfly and Lieutenant James St Clair Bower RN

Any discussion on these ships is likely to be dominated by an incident that occurred in the Solomon Islands in October 1880 when a survey party of five men from Sandfly was attacked by natives and four men, who also included her commanding officer, Lieutenant James Bower, were killed. A fifth sailor managed to escape and was later rescued by Sandfly but in conducting his rescue another of her crew was killed. This incident created great excitement not only locally but worldwide, noting the young officer was the son of a prominent naval officer, Admiral James Paterson Bower.

Earlier incidents involving Sandfly

In 1874 Sandfly, under the command of Lieutenant Howell, was sent to investigate the massacre of an unspecified number of the crew of the schooner Lapwing in the Santa Cruz Islands when on 17 September she came under attack from natives firing volleys of arrows. In response the ship fired her cannon, totally destroying the attacking canoes and resulting in the deaths of about 30 islanders; later a shore party destroyed two large villages.

Again, in October 1879 Sandfly, under the command of Lieutenant Bower, accompanied HMS Danae to the Pacific Islands to enquire into the deaths of a number of white traders. In particular, on an island off Guadalcanal, a trader in copra who was under the paid protection of a local chief was killed and his possessions looted. Sandfly failed in an attempt to capture the culprits but in retaliation set fire to native villages and destroyed their canoes and fishing nets.

It should also be remembered that in September 1877 Beagle under the command of Lieutenant Crawford Caffin RN arrived off Tanna Island in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) in response to the death of a white settler killed by natives. A search failed to find the culprit but an accomplice was discovered and hanged at Beagle’s fore yardarm. Caffin’s action prompted much public outcry. After due consideration the Admiralty ruled that hanging was not deserving of censure but such executions aboard HM Ships were undesirable.

The remains of Lieutenant Bower, comprising his skull and a necklace of his teeth, were handed over to HMS Cormorant when she made an expedition to the Islands in May 1881. These were later buried at St Thomas Rest Park, North Sydney, where there is a memorial plaque. Commodore Goodenough’s grave is close by.

Admiral Sir Reginald Godfrey Otway Tupper RN

When serving in the battleship Alexandra, a flagship in the Mediterranean, Sub Lieutenant Tupper recalls the sensation caused by a notice posted in the wardroom stating that Lieutenant Bower and a boat’s crew from the schooner Sandfly had been massacred in the Solomons. Two months later he was surprised by an appointment as First Lieutenant to a sister ship, the schooner Renard. Accordingly, with two other subs also serving in other schooners he embarked, in the Pacific Steam Navigation Company packet Aconcagua at Naples – leased to take migrants to the Australian colonies – bound via the Cape of Good Hope. Somewhat surprisingly some Lieutenants and sailors also joining the schooners came via the Orient liner Cuzco and although the Suez Canal had opened many vessels still favoured the Cape when coming to Australia.

Before the days of the Gay Mardi Gras, a large event on the national social and sporting calendar was the Hobart Regatta² (later Royal Hobart Regatta) in which the Royal Navy Squadron and later the Royal Australian Navy eagerly participated. The local newspaper (Hobart Mercury) reported on 2 January 1881 that: ‘HMS Wolverine arrived here yesterday after making passage from Sydney under steam.

‘Commodore Wilson and his wife have taken up their abode in the residence at Battery Point, provided and furnished by the Government for his use. Visitors went off to the Wolverine today. She will remain here for two months and then go to Melbourne in time for the closing of the Exhibition³. The warships Beagle, Sandfly, Renard, Alert, Conflict and Danae are also here and the French and Italian warships now in Hobson’s Bay have indicated their intention of visiting Hobart.’

A further newspaper story of 7 March 1881 confirms changes of personnel in the schooners now at Hobart. In summary this advises of new arrivals with Lieutenant Maturin succeeding Lieutenant De Hoghton in Beagle, Lieutenant W.S. King succeeding Lieutenant Richards in Renard, Lieutenant Richards to command Alacrity, Lieutenant Maxwell to command Sandfly, and Sub Lieutenants K. Oxley to Beagle, Tupper to Renard and Messum to Sandfly.

We also learn ‘…a very handsome boat was completed by Whitehouse Bros for HM Schooner Renard. She is modelled on a whaleboat and measures 25 ft. long, with a 5 ft. 6 in. beam, and 2 ft. 2 in. deep. Huon pine is used in her construction, and she is copper fastened throughout, not a particle of iron put in her. The boat is painted white, with a varnished top streak and a narrow red ribbon, looks very neat and gives an example of the finished style in which Whitehouse Bros are celebrated. Commodore Wilson expressed himself pleased with this and the other boats which this firm have built for war ships this year. It is noted that a similar craft was built for Beagle.’

The Hobart Regatta was a great success with crews of the warships Wolverine, Beagle, Renard, Sandfly and the French ship Finistere competing, the French winning each race in which they entered. But all good things have to come to an end and in late March all four schooners were on their way to Sydney, and by mid-April the schooners were on passage to the South Sea Islands.

Returning to SBLT Tupper’s experiences

Professor Williams informs us that Tupper recorded his experiences in two publications, the first in 1926 and in his Reminiscences dated 1929. From these we learn that when recommissioning at Hobart one-third of the old crew stayed on in their ship, as they had experience in handling fore and aft sails, of which the average naval rating was ignorant. Also aboard was Tupper’s big black retriever dog – said to be a good lookout.

The schooners were fine sea-boats, and had good accommodation below for the crew. They were well rigged, the main boom being 35 feet long, and were fitted with a big square sail that was useful for running before the wind. Amidships a 12-pounder Armstrong breech-loader was mounted; otherwise their men only carried rifles and cutlasses, and the officers carried revolvers. They also carried the old-fashioned boarding-pikes. They were designed to undertake long cruises and had ten tons of fresh water apiece, in five iron tanks, and were provisioned for four months.

Lieutenant King and Sub Lieutenant Tupper messed aft in a diminutive wardroom, the deck-house rising three feet above the deck and giving them light and air. The boatswain had a tiny cabin to himself, just forward of their quarters, and in this he spent every off-duty moment reading his Bible, with never a word to officers or men.

Renard was involved in another punitive expedition in which the perpetrators of the Bower massacre were brought to justice and this unhappy period of colonial history came to a close. After five months in Renard, where he must have received favourable reports, Tupper was appointed to the Royal Yacht and his career from a humble patrol boat blossomed, doubtless with many tales of his experiences in the South Seas. It is also notable that another contemporary, Sub Lieutenant Edward Bradford (who on the death of Lieutenant Bower had assumed command of Sandfly), was to become one of the best-known officers in the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Edward Bradford.

Summary

As part of the strategic picture we see the Royal Naval ships on the Australia Station demonstrating their capabilities. In less than two years, they responded to the ‘Bishop Patterson Incident’ by providing a squadron of five new vessels to conduct police patrols in the South Sea islands. This was a remarkable achievement and it is doubtful if it could be completed in this timescale today. They also provided local employment in supporting the Squadron and especially to the local shipbuilding and repair industry.

What is less obvious is the execution of some of these duties. The patrol vessels were to protect and police an aggressive labour trade which was destroying age-old native culture and denuding some islands of its workforce. In conducting their patrols, it could be argued the squadron failed to understand and gain the confidence of the natives, leaving in their wake a trail of death and destruction of the very people they were sent to protect. Let us hope we learn from these experiences and Bishop Patterson, Commodore Goodenough and Lieutenant Bower did not die in vain.

Notes:

1 Topsail Schooner – is similar but has one or more square sails set high on the foremast, above the gaff rigged foresail.

2  The Hobart Regatta was first held in November 1838 but the date was later changed in January/February and for a long time has enjoyed support of first the RN and later the RAN.

3  The Melbourne International Exhibition was held from 1880 to 1881.

References:

Giles W. E., A Cruise in a Queensland Labour Vessel to the South Seas, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1968.

TROVE: various Australian newspapers 1871 – 1881.

Williams, Clive, Massacre of Naval Personnel in the Solomons, 1880, Australian Naval Institute Newsletter, Canberra, 19 February 2023.