H.M.S. Tortoise

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 69, 15 December 1931, Page 7 (Supplement)

H.M.S. Tortoise

Visit to New Zealand

KAURI AND CANNIBALS.

(Written lor “The Dominion” by.

H. Fildes.)

An interesting footnote to New Zealand history by an authority on our early history.

A littlerknown warship, H.M.S. Tortoise, Master-Commander James Wood,zvas on the coast of New Zealand from March, 1842, to June of the next year, and from the extent of her sojourn here it is somewhat surprising so little is on record concerning her local activities. The Auckland and Wellington newspapers make brief and rare references to her; a book of early New Zealand reminiscences has mention of her and her commander, and finally, twenty-seven years after her visit, the first volume of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute reproduces her name, and that of Captain Wood in an article on the birds of Little Barrier Island.

ADMIRALTY records inform ua that the Tortoise was originally the Sir Edward Hughes, aptanaatiy an old East Indiaman, and pamed after a forgotten British J&dmlral and seaman who, like our iJmnaß Cook, participated in the operaagainst the French at Louisburg 3tnd Quebec In 1758 and 1759. The Sir Wward Hughes was purchased by the Admiralty in 1806 for use as a Jtoreahip, and was then re-named TorSjafea. In between then and the victory Waterloo in 1815 she must have had ft most eventful career in quest of JBtaes for the busy Admiralty DockJarda, and up to the time of her visit I® New Zealand it can be said she had J»Bn a naval unit in the reigns of the jiw© last Georges, William IV., and in early years of that of Queen Victoria. In order to introduce her to New Zeawaters, it is necessary to state jfimt at the beginning of the nineteenth

wntury, the Immense spars used for taking the topmasts of the larger Hasses of ships in the navy had become 5® scarce in Europe and so costly, it jwas necessary to look elsewhere for testable timber. Cook had remarked in his first voyEthat the growing timber he had up the river Thames in New Zeamight, with tapping, provide such masts as no country in Europe could produce; but nothing was done then or later to test his valuable impression. French may have been the first to '&> so when in 1772 the unfortunate tavlgator, Captain Marlon Dufresne, |oot and fashioned several kauri spars lor his two ships then at the Bay of fclaads. New South Wales was colonhad in 1788, and only a few years' before occasional vessels were b ba found making for Hokianga and

the Frith of Thames In order to get jpnpplies of kauri timber, some of which were taken to the Admiralty Dockyards. In December, 1818, the whaleship Catherine, Captain Graham, at the Bay of Islands, took a small kauri spar ' i® England where it was used for a tore- topgallant mast for H.M.S. Dromedary, and proved a stick of first-rate (Quality being still serviceable when that vessel came to New Zealand two years later. Direct attempts of the British Admiralty to obtain kauri spars are seen hi the cases of H.M. hired transport Boyd in 1809, H.M.S. Dromedary here in February, 1820, H.M.S. Coromandel three months later, and H.M.S. Buffalo in 1833-4, 1836-7, and again in 1840. It was necessary that spars for the topmasts for the largest ships should he from seventy-four to eighty-four feet long, from twenty-one to twenty-three Inches in diameter, and perfectly Btraight, and that in order for facility in handling the trees should be obtainable near the water’s edge. It was found that the New Zealand kauri forests could furnish those requirements. In the forest on the high ridge of land separating Coromandel li.ir-

hour, named after H.M.S. Coromandel, and Mercury Bay, the finest kauri was to be found. One tree known as the Father of Kauri had a circumference of seventy-five feet, but how high it was had not been estimated as its top was not visible among the surrounding growth. In September, 1841, a large tree which, when cut down and trimmed, measured one hundred and fifty feet in length and twenty-five around its base, had to be dragged up and down two wooded ravines at nearly an angle of forty-five degrees, then for nearly a mile across a mangrove swamp to the borders of the creek emptying into the harbour. The length of this immense tree had to be diminished to ninetyeight feet in order to make it available for shipment on the barque, Planter, 490 tons, in which vessel it was conveyed to England. In the work of timber getting native labour was obtained by the Europeans either domiciled or visiting, and not always easily

or agreeably, unless the remuneration was made in muskets and gunpowder. The work was strenuous and slow, employing settlers, seamen and natives, and such aids as capstans, purchase blocks and tackle, and bullock teams brought over from Sydney. Dr. R. G. Jameson has stated, 1840, that one or two cargoes, worth from £lOO to £2OO each tree, were annually sent Home to H.M. Dockyards over a course of years, and in his estimate private shipments would enter. One

of the most enterprising of these early timber exporters or traders was Captain Ranulph Dacre, a one-time fellow midshipman of Captain Marryat’s, and one of the earliest New Zealand pioneers. From 1827 he entered into contracts to supply the Navy Board with large shipments of spars from Hokianga, and prior to this Lieut. Thomas McDonnell, a retired naval officer of independent means, then making his first visit to New Zealand, had been struck with the splendid kauri forests at Hokianga, and reported to the Admiralty on them. In 1835 he was appointed Additional British Resident for New Zealand at the Bay of Islands, and his son was Lieut.-Colonel Thomas McDonnell, N.Z.C. of Maori War fame. Like the ships of Marion Dufresne and the ship Boyd, the timber obtained by the Buffalo in 1810 was fated not to leave Now Zealand. After discharg-

ing her valuable load obtained in 1837, she again came to New Zealand, this time in command of Master-Comman-der James Wood, a sea-dog of-the old school, but through no fault of his the Buffalo was lost while at anchor in Mercury Bay in the Bay of Plenty. A most powerful gale was blowing from the north-east and she was driven ashore at Hood tide on July 28, 1840, with the loss of two lives. Commander Wood and his officers and crew were able to ship to Sydney in a vessel standing by, and in due course reached England. As some recognition of the manner in which he had handled his ship and so preserved the lives of her crew, he was given command of H.M.S. Tortoise, a vessel larger in size than the Buffalo. The Tortoise had been selected by the Admiralty to procure another load of kauri spars, and no time appears to have been lost in despatching her to New Zealand. She was a vessel of 962 tons; her gundeck carried six 18pounder guns and measured 147 feet 2 inches in length. Her extreme breadth was 39 feet 1 inch, and the depth of her hold was 19 feet 4} inches. These precise particulars are Admiralty measurements, and she carried a complement of eighty men. For the outvoyage she was to take a large number of convicts to Van Dioman’s Land, and in charge of them was a Convict Guard one hundred and five strong, commanded by Major Charles B. Cumberland. Besides these were seventeen women and twenty-four children, three other children being born during the voyage. She also carried a necessary passenger in the person of Mr. Thomas Lasslett. Surveyor of Timber, who made the voyage out afid back, and when at Auckland his professional services were employed by the Executive Council.

H.M.S. Tortoise sailed from Chatham on August 21,1841, but being compelled to put into Plymouth it was not until October 26 she finally got away from England. She proceeded by way of Cape of Good Hope, then to Van Diemen’s Land, reached about the middle of February, and where at Hobart Town she landed the troops, women, children, and convicts on February 26, 1842. On March 9 she left for New Zealand, it being Commander first intention to call in at Kororareka, Bay of Islands, in order to recover some anchors left there by him on his previous visit in the Buffalo. On March 21, 1842, saw the Tortoise anchored off Kororareka Beach, but with what result cannot be stated, however, soon afterwards she sailed for Timber Station, an old-time port south of Mercury Bay, anchoring off the Tairua

River, situated a few j miles south of Buffalo Bay, where Captain Wood had lost his former command. Here arrangements were formulated with the European owners of the timber yards for a supply of kauri spars, interrupted on May 6, 1842, by a tragedy. Mr. Smith, gunner, in charge of the boat's landing provisions at*Timber Station, returning to the ship reporting the death by drowning of William Samson, A. 8., through the jolly-boat capsizing in the rollers. The unfortunate Samson was a native of Devonport, England, a good seaman, and had entered as a volunteer at Hobart on the preceding February 21, this being his first service in the Royal Navy.

In the next month, June, H.M.S. Tor- ■ toise proceeded north to Nagle Harbour, a small, but secure anchorage immediately inside the north head of Port Abercrombie, Great Barrier Island, and whore on August 11 she lost another of her seamen in James Hanney, chief gunner's mate, who died on board the ship. Particulars are scant in showing how time was employed at the Great Barrier Island, and the next reference chrries us to four months later, when, on October 22, 1842, the ship’s cutter was despatched to Leesan’s Bay. This unidentified place must have been within the confines of Port Abercrombie, as it is narrated that next morning news was received from survivors, who returned to the Tortoise in a canoe, that the cutter had filled in a squall the previous evening and sunk, resulting in Thomas Harrison, Boy 2nd class, being .drowned. The cutter was subsequently recovered, but no trace was found of the body of the lad. The peaceful operations of the Tortoise were interrupted in the month of November, when there was every prospect of her officers and crew being punitively employed against some natives of the Thames and Bay of Plenty engaged in tribal war. A longstanding enmity had existed between

the Ngati Tamatera tribe, of the Upper Thames, and the Ngai te Rangi, of the Tauranga district. At this time the head chief of the former was that fierce old cannibal, Taraia Ngakuti, and early in 1842 he had been so provoked he set out with an armed party to wreak vengeance. In a few days he surprised the inmates of Ongare Pa, near Katikad, of whom six were killed, including the chief, Te Whanake, twelve women and children were enslaved, and as usual with ferocious Taraia, his followers Indulged in cannibalism, and from this act he obtained the somewhat incorrect sobriquet, “The Last of the Cannibals," This tribal hostility and savagery caused Governor Hobson to intervene, and in June the Colonial brig Victoria was ordered to Auckland from the Manukau so as to embark troops for the purpose of seizing the old cannibal chief in his lair. However, other counsels prevailed and Mr. George Clarke, senior, the Chief Protector of Aborigines, was sent to reason with Taraia, the affair being settled by both parties paying tribute to one another for past injuries. But not for long, as by October of the same year Tangaroa, a chief of the Arawa tribe at Maketu, was dispossessed of some of his property by the natives of Tauranga, and a near relation slain for violating a Tapu, inasmuch as he had eaten potaties growing near the graves of some of the victims of Taraia. Revenge was exacted at Mayor Island, a savage raid being made on the Tauranga people there, the killed being cooked ami eaten, some of the flesh being sent to the chiefs at Rotorua. The Governor, Captain Hobson, had died on September 10, 1842, Lieutenant Willoughby Shortland tentatively occupying the position. At this time Shortland was at the Bay of Plenty in the brig Victoria endeavouring to purchase territory, and he decided on sharp measures against the Maketu natives, and to that end despatched the brig to

Auckland for troops and guns. The Victoria arrived at Auckland late in November, and in a few days embarked forty of the 80th Regiment under Major Bunbury, also taking in commissariat stores, and planking for the erection of a barracks. H.M.S. Torotise was then at anchor at Great Barrier Island, and it was suggested by the officer commanding the troops that her services should be obtained, and to that end the Victoria arrived in Barrier Harbour on November 30,1842. Commander Wood, of the Tortoise, gave most cordial assistance, furnishing a naval party, guns and ammunition while a pinnace manned by marines was to follow. Among the naval party was Commander Wood’s son, who was attached to the staff of Colonel Bunbury.'Advantage was also taken to procure suitable round shot for the two carronades belonging to the Government brig, as it had been found that those carried in her shot lockers were too large for those pieces of ordnance and were consequently useless. Early in December the troops assembled at Tauranga in order to concert the plan of attack, Major Bunbury having great difficulty in dissuading Lieutenant Shortland, R.N., the actingGovernor, from leading in person the . naval portion of the attacking force. When all preparations were made and

orders about to be given to weigh anchor and proceed to a point opposite Maketu Pa, the proceedings were interrupted by the arrival of Bishop Selwyn and Chief Justice Martin, and they strongly recommended the actingGovernor to display forbearance. In addition to this the Attorney-General, William Swainson, had already sent his protest stating that the employment of troops would be illegal without the consent of the whole of the Executive Council. The advice given and protest made were wisely not rejected, and in place of acts of aggression the troops engaged in trials of strength with the Tauranga natives, who were generally victorious. The expedition soon separated, the force belonging to the Tortoise returning to that ship at the Great Barrier, the Acting-Governor and Major Bunbury being delayed at Tauranga in an official warfare. A peace was eventually patched up between the contending Maori tribes, and the possibility of a long war between the Europeans and Maoris averted a war that would have entailed the loss of many lives and the country much money. This little affair, however, cost the Colony about £2OOO, and was the first serious difference the New Zealand Government had with a section of the Maoris. Staff-surgeon Henry Jones Domville, then surgeon H.M.S. Tortoise, and who afterwards had a distinguished naval career culminating in the operations at Sebastopol, Odessa, and later at Kronstadt, has recorded that Jie had medical charge for twelve months of a party of officers and seamen encajnped in the forests of New Zealand in an expedition to quell a disturbance among rhe native chiefs of Tauranga. On January 1, 1843, the Tortoise sailed from Barrier Island, her destination being Wakahau, no doubt Whakahau, Slipper Island, off Tairua Head, where she remained until April loading masts, spars and timber, and then left for the Bay of Islands to take in provisions and water. May 28 found her moored in Waiheke Channel, which lies between that island and Pouul Island, and in readiness for her return to England. Advantage was taken of her sailing to provide passages for the widow and family of Captain William Hobson, R.N., New Zealand’s first Governor. The most juvenile member of this party, a baby girl, has the distinction of being the first child of a Governor to be born in the Colony, the event taking place at Auckland on De'cember 21, 1841, exactly ninety years ago from the present time. When the late Huia Onslow was born at Government House, Wellington on November 13, 1890, the local press wrongly heralded it as the first occasion upon which a child of any Governor of New Zealand first opened its eyes in the Colony. It is also of interest to note that Mrs. Hobson and Captain Wood, of the Tortoise, were no strangers to one another, for when she joined her husband at Kororareka, the old capital of New Zealand, early in 1840, she voyaged from Sydney in the ill-fated Buffalo, then commanded by him. A public meeting had been held at Auckland when an address was unanimously voted to Mrs. Hobson expres-

? sive of the sympathy felt by the people i and their admiration of the manner in i which she had fulfilled the duties of ■ her station, public and private. The . Adoption of the address was moved by Mr. Willaim Swainson, Attorney-Gen-eral, and seconded by Captain William Field Porter, a member of the Executive Council, and who, prior to coming to New Zealand, had been a large shipowner, and Mayor of Liverpool. It had been stated that owing to fear of shallow water in the Waiteinata, Master-Commander Wood was averse to bringing the Tortoise inside the harbour. This necessitated the distinguished passengers being conveyed to the Admiralty vessel in one of her pinnaces. Commander Wood’s action gave rise to a good deal of feeling and also found expression in the short-lived “Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist” newspaper. On June 18 the ship waa ready to sail, and on that day she received her passengers, the mail and Governor’s despatches, and sailed for England next day by way of Cape Horn, Spithcad being reached on October 13, 1843. There is little more to be said of her and her commander. Four years later when the Tortoise was guard-ship at Ascension Island, and commanded by Captain Fred-

crick Hutton, also Governor at Ascension Island, a fire broke out among her coal; after incessant labour during four days and nights assisted by the garrison, her hold was cleared and the fire subdued, but not until nearly all her beam* were burnt ■ through to a depth of three to five inches. Her name then disappears «from the list of naval ships In commlesion, and the foregoing disaster appears to have terminated the service of the first British naval vessel employed in a punitive expedition against the natives of New Zealand following the signing of the Treaty, of Waitangi. In "Notes on the Birds of the Little Barrier Island,” by Captain F. W. Hubton, printed In VoL L, “Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, 1869,” the author states that in December, 1867, he epent four days on the eastern side of the island and neither heard nor saw signs of a kiwi, and In support of his experience quotes Sir George Grey’s like disappointment, and adds that Mr. R. O. Barstow, of the Bay of Islands, had informed him that in 1842 Captain Wood, H.M.S. Tortoise, spent three or four days on the Little Barrier with the express object of catching Kiwi, but did not see one. In what circumstances this last Information was tendered is not clear, as MrBarstow would not seem to have come to New Zealand until December, 1843, and in the ship Bangalore, fellow passengers being the new Governor, Captain Robert Fitzßoy, R.N., and family, Mr. Justice H. S. Chapman, wife and child, and by that time Captain Wood was' in England. However, Sir Walter Buller would appear to have been more successful, as in the same journal is printed his essay on the "Ornithology of New Zealand,” in which he states that the common kiwi was comparatively numerous on the Little Barrier; but he does not seem to have carried his discovery into his Important work on the “Birds of New Zealand." ,