Final Voyage of H.M.S. Buffalo STORY OF WRECK TOLD FOR FIRST TIME

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 70, 15 December 1933, Page 18 (Supplement)

Final Voyage of H.M.S. Buffalo STORY OF WRECK TOLD FOR FIRST TIME

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11.) mid violent death when taking a large sum of money to the Bay of Islands in his cutter the “Three Bees,” the story of which ranks with curious facts of old colonial days. The Buffalo left the bay for Sydney on March 23, and was again at Kororareka June 1, sailing for England fourteen days later, calling in at Rio, and anchoring in Plymouth Sound November 28, 1838, her timber being unloaded at Chatham.

The Buffalo left England on her last and fatal voyage to the South Sea toward the end of 1839, in command of James Wood, promoted master commander, [April 6, 1839, and having as second mas-

ter, Frederick W. Paul, Thomas Frazer, surgeon, and David Russell, assistant surgeon. Apparently she was taking convicts to Van Diemen’s Land, as Lambert says in the “Story of Old Wairoa,” that Jack Lewis, an'old whaler who died at Te Araroa in 1913, came to New Zealand in her, and they had landed convicts at Hobart. By the time the Buffalo reached New Zealand the country had been systematically colonised with Captain W. Hobson, R.N., as LieutenantGovernor. In May, 1840, he was in residence at a spot natively named Okiato, but which he renamed Russell, the old capital of the colony. This extraordinarily expensive placa only bild an exis-

tence of a few months, in 18-12 its name being transferred to Kororareka, and the records of that time and later advised Russell (Okiato) and Russell (Kororareka) in order that they might be distinguished. At the-present day, more often than not, Russell is wrongly credited with being the old capital of New Zealand, also known as ‘‘Hobson’s Folly.”

The Governor was without a body of militia to support him. Herbert Baillie has told us that ou March 1, 1840, Hobson was attacked with paralysis while on board H.M.S. Herald in the Waitemata, and that the warship returned to Sydney to report the matter to the Go-vernor-in-Chief, who, in due course, and

in accordance with Lord Russell’s dispatch of September 2G ultimo, dispatched to the Bay of Islands a detachment of the SOth Regiment in charge of Major Thomas Bunbury, late commandant of the Norfolk Island penal settlement, and Captain R. Lockhart. Mrs. ’Hobson, with her family,iwas also at Sydney waiting to join her husband in New Zealand;- and advantage was taken of the Buffalo going there for timber to convey her and the detachment of troops. Colonel Bunbury narrates that he did not embark until some days after the troops, that he had great difficulty obtaining accommodation for himself and his’horse, and that when he did he was obliged to sleep between deck, but later conveyed that had he been wiser, and perhaps more discreet to the commander of the Buffalo, still Captain James Wood, who he has described as a rough seaman entirely governed by his incivil first officer, he would have fared better. In the circumstances,' and in order to afford more accommodation fdr Mrs. Hobson and family, the gossipy, unaccomplished and harmless, yet withal gallant Major, joined the mess of the officers’ detachment. Baillie has stated the Buffalo left Sydney April 5, 1840, and arrived at the Bay of Islands on the ICth. Hobson who had been recuperating at Waimate hastened to the Bay so soon as the Buffalo hove in sight, and sped out to her in a boat to be reunited with his wife aud family. It would appear that the vessel proceeded to the lower anchorage below I’aihia. Major Bunbury complained there were no boats to land him and his men, nor did Captain Wood seem to care to land them, but at length he decided to do so, and, says Bunbury, as if on purpose, selected a wet and uncomfortable day, suppressing the fact the same weather conditions had been prevalent for some time. The Major also complained that Captain Wood refused to perform small services, such as providing boats to convoy relief guards to Paihia, but it can be understood this was not within the sphere of his commission. The force, with baggage and tents, had not been landed forty-eight hours, apparently at Okiato, or old Russell, when its services were enlisted at Kororareka, distant some miles, to suppress'a threatened attack by the natives who had resisted the authority of the magistrate and created panic among the European inhabitants.

According to evidence available in New Zealand the Buffalo subsequently obtained quantities of kauri spars iu Whangaruru Harbour, and also at Tutukaka, a harbour only fit for small vessels, and this

she obtained from the Ngunguni River,' the centre of a fine timber district, the ship for some time having to be moored head and stern.

We now come to the story of her wreck, narrated for the first time in New Zealand, and mainly extracted from the “Hampshire Telegraph.” It would seem the Buffalo proceeded to Mercury Bay to complete loading, and on July 28, 1840, was at anchor there. On that day. it came on to blow a most powerful gale! from the N.E.; and cont>.ued for three days. Every preparation was made for encountering it by striking lower yards/ topmasts, and letting go all anchors, but' notwithstanding all these precautions the! ship parted from them on the morning of ■ the 28th, and by coolness and good man-, agement of Captain Wood was run direct! on the beach with the flood tide, and all I her crew were saved with the exception! of the drowning of one seaman named ! Charles Moore, and a boy named John Conies, also given as Carnis, both belonging to Chatham. A few days later the Avreck was described “as high and dry on the beach at low water, and was completely gone to pieces,” and the crew fully employed saving what stores and provisions they could from the wreck. At the time of the disaster a great portion of the ship’s company was in the woods cutting and transporting timber at Cook’s Bay, but on hearing of the loss of the ship they proceeded thence in an open boat to the assistance of their shipmates, and in doing this met with most severe weather, compelling them to run into a creek to ride out a gale. On August 6 a ship was standing into Mercury Bay to convey the officers and crew, who had been encamped on the beach, to Sydney, whence they would return to England. On September 23 the, barque Bolina was advised as arriving at the Bay of Islands from the Thames with the oflicers and .crew of the Buffalo, and from thence they proceeded to England by way of Sydney. At this point there remains little to be said of the old Buffalo. In Governor Hobson’s Disbursements for 1842 we note a quantity of her salvaged stores was used by his Government departments, and in Dr. Shortland’s “Traditions of the New Zealanders” we read a half-decked sailing boat belonging to the Colony, and formerly the pinnace of H.M.S. Buffalo, and in charge of Thomas Duder, conveyed him and the .chief Te Awhe from Waihou to Auckland. 11. D. M. Haszard, in his paper, “Foot-tracks of Captain Cook.” 1902, saj’s the wreck of the Buffalo lies just to the north of the entrance of the Whitianga River, and in 1897 the ribs were just awash at dead low water, spring tides. This part of Mercury Bay is now known as Buffalo Beach, and the wreck lies in water just north of the Whitianga Hospital. E. M. Williams visited the scene of the disaster in 1884, and obtained several relics of his old ship, and noted that portions of her were as sound as the day she was launched in 1813. 11. A. Cory-Wright, of Tairua, believes that after a storm traces of her timber are to be seen on the beach, and that an old cannon is preserved somewhere in Mercury Bay. This may be the Buffalo cannon and ball pictured last year in New Zealand, the gun set in concrete, seeming to carry water to a covered wejl below its mouth, and on top of the well is embedded the cannonball, its half shape showing. There is tradition that the Buffalo introduced prairie buffalo grass into New South Wales, but there are many species of that grass, Baron Mueller introducing one, and so we can only mention the matter. The commander of the Buffalo stood court martial for the loss of his ship, but was exonerated of blame, and was given the command of a larger ship, H.M. storeship Tortoise, the story of ■which has been told. In this last visit to New Zealand, Captain Wood again met Major Bunbury, the latter writing in more appreciatory terms of the old seadog, who had then been forty-five years at sea, thirty-three of which he had served. in H.M. Navy, both as pilot and master, and visiting all parts of the world.