NAVAL TRADITION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22909, 11 December 1937, Page 12

NAVAL TRADITION

the five curacoas MODEL IN AUCKLAND MUSEUM § link with dominion history BY C. •W. VENXELL The presentation, of a scale model o! "J, H.M.S. Curacoa, a frigate which served 1< for many years on the Australian station, nearly a century ago, to the Auckland Museum, has a special significance in the history of the Dominion, since this particular ship was well-known in New Zealand waters during thollaori Wars of the 'sixties. At that time she was flagship of the senior naval officer on the Australian Station, and was used to transport troops from Sydney to New Zealand in 1863. More than likely she has lain at anchor in the Waitemata. She also played an important part in keeping order among the Pacific Islands, and in ]865 she bombarded the islands of Tanna and Erromanga, in the. New Hebrides, to punish the natives for a long series of outrages. The name Curacoa had had a long and distinguished connection with British naval history. It was first bestowed on a warship—a 36-gun frigate—in 1809 to commemorate the capture of the strongly-fortified town of Curacoa from the Dutch two years before by Captain Charles Brisbane, R.N., who was knighted for this exploit. Ships and Torts Captured With a squadron of four frigates under his command, Captain Brisbane forced the narrow entrance to the harbour, which was bristling with guns. It was a brisk morning's work. Four Dutch warships inside the harbour were boarded and captured at the point of the cutlass, landing parties stormed the forts, and by noon the Union Jack floated over Curacoa. The original Curacoa saw service during the closing years of the Napoleonic Wars, being mentioned on various occasions in minor operations on the coast of France and in the Mediterranean. y *■ . . - During the war with Russia in the. 'fifties, a 31-gun Curacoa performed valuable service in the Black Sea, including the bombardment of Sebastopol in 1854. During the fighting at Eupatoria in the Crimea (about 50 miles north of Sebastopol) a squadron, of which the Curacoa was flagship, supported the right flank of the troops 'commanded by the Turkish general Omar Pasha. The ships were brought close inshore, and cannonaded the Russian batteries within range of their guns. Action at Samoa The successor to the ship whose exact replica now reposes in the Auckland, Museum was a cruiser, and was launched in 1878. She also served in ' the Pacific. In 1893, in co-operation with some German cruisers, she shelled a rebel native position at Samoa, in support of the ruling chief. The name is still to be found on the Navy List. For the past 21 years it has been borne by another cruiser, which was laid down in 1916, and completed early in 1918. For the remainder of the war she was flagship of the famous Harwich Force. After the Armistice she was sent, with the Ist Light Cruiser Squadron, to the Baltic to operate against the Bolsheviks. In May, 1919, she struck a mine, but was not damaged sufficiently to cause her tJf ant. The Baltic operations lasted until February, 1920, so that the first two years of the present Curacoa's existence were eventful. At present she is the gunnery and torpfedo school cruiser at Portsmouth. ,