This was the fifth "Beagle" and was a 120 ton schooner with one gun.
Built Sydney, Australia 1872, sold 1883.
http://www.aboutdarwin.com/literature/Beagles.html
Beagle HMS (1878)
-
aukepalmhof
- Posts: 7796
- Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am
Re: Beagle HMS (1878)
Built as a sailing schooner by the yard of John Cuthbert in Darling Harbour, Sydney for the Royal Navy.
December 1872 launched as the HMS BEAGLE.
Tonnage 120 ton (bm), dim. 27.51 x 5.79 x 1.82m. (draught)
Armament 1 – 12 pdr. gun
Building cost approx. £2,800.
Crew 27.
She was one of the five Royal Navy schooners used in the Blackbirding Fleet, and her primary task was to suppress the kidnapping of the Pacific Islands natives to provide labour for the Queensland, Australia sugar plantations and the pearling industry in Northern Australia.
The HMS BEAGLE was mainly used for the patrols between the Solomons/New Hebrides area and the eastern seaboard of Australia.
1877 Under command of Lieutenant Crawford Caffin, she arrived off Tana Island, New Hebrides, following the murder of a white man by natives. A search failed to find the murderer, but an accomplice was discovered, and shortly thereafter hanged from the BEAGLE’s fore yardarm.
Caffin’s action prompted much public outcry, but after some three months consideration the Admiralty ruled that the hanging was not deserving of censure but that such executions aboard HMS Ships were undesirable.
In 1879 more whites were murdered by natives in the New Hebrides, and BEAGLE now commanded by Lieutenant Thomas de Hoghton, joined three other vessels, including HMS WOLVERENE, in a punitive expedition to the islands.
March 1883 paid off and sold at Sydney to a Melbourne buyer who used her as a south sea trader.
Later she was laid up in the River Yarra near Melbourne and was for sale
1891 Sold to Messrs Bell and Davis of Sydney, retired mining speculators, who would use her as yacht and trading schooner in the South Pacific.
11 July 1891 she left the South Wharf of the Yarra River under command of Capt. Gill of Kinsington, and two passengers the two owners and Joe Byrne (The owners had there name changed to Bloom and Douglas), the two had defrauded the Australian Mercantile Loan, and Guarantee Company Ltd. in Sydney for £30,000.
The voyage was a very rough one the first three weeks before they arrived in Hilo in Hawaii, where they had trouble with the Customs Officers over the quantity of liquor on board, and they did not allow to anchor before 300 sovereigns was paid, and that not any grog-trade took place.
Honolulu was visited on 4 October where the BEAGLE was overhauled, captain Gill resigned. He was unable to understand the motive for the trip and had noticed that the Customs Officers were hard to satisfy coupling this fact with the absence of all preparations for trade; he considered it would be wise to sever his connection with the vessel which was a mysterious to him as a phantom ship.
Joseph Martin the first mate signed on in Hilo, was promoted to Captain.
After sailing from Honolulu she touched at various islands in the Pacific and finally she arrived in Callao. Peru in March 1892.
1 April 1892 sold at Callao to Mr. Silvino Cavalie a French commercial agent.
Then all traces of Bell and Davis and the BEAGLE are disappearing.
Sources: Ships of the Australia Station by John Bastock. Argus of 30 May 1892 a Melbourne newspaper.
.
December 1872 launched as the HMS BEAGLE.
Tonnage 120 ton (bm), dim. 27.51 x 5.79 x 1.82m. (draught)
Armament 1 – 12 pdr. gun
Building cost approx. £2,800.
Crew 27.
She was one of the five Royal Navy schooners used in the Blackbirding Fleet, and her primary task was to suppress the kidnapping of the Pacific Islands natives to provide labour for the Queensland, Australia sugar plantations and the pearling industry in Northern Australia.
The HMS BEAGLE was mainly used for the patrols between the Solomons/New Hebrides area and the eastern seaboard of Australia.
1877 Under command of Lieutenant Crawford Caffin, she arrived off Tana Island, New Hebrides, following the murder of a white man by natives. A search failed to find the murderer, but an accomplice was discovered, and shortly thereafter hanged from the BEAGLE’s fore yardarm.
Caffin’s action prompted much public outcry, but after some three months consideration the Admiralty ruled that the hanging was not deserving of censure but that such executions aboard HMS Ships were undesirable.
In 1879 more whites were murdered by natives in the New Hebrides, and BEAGLE now commanded by Lieutenant Thomas de Hoghton, joined three other vessels, including HMS WOLVERENE, in a punitive expedition to the islands.
March 1883 paid off and sold at Sydney to a Melbourne buyer who used her as a south sea trader.
Later she was laid up in the River Yarra near Melbourne and was for sale
1891 Sold to Messrs Bell and Davis of Sydney, retired mining speculators, who would use her as yacht and trading schooner in the South Pacific.
11 July 1891 she left the South Wharf of the Yarra River under command of Capt. Gill of Kinsington, and two passengers the two owners and Joe Byrne (The owners had there name changed to Bloom and Douglas), the two had defrauded the Australian Mercantile Loan, and Guarantee Company Ltd. in Sydney for £30,000.
The voyage was a very rough one the first three weeks before they arrived in Hilo in Hawaii, where they had trouble with the Customs Officers over the quantity of liquor on board, and they did not allow to anchor before 300 sovereigns was paid, and that not any grog-trade took place.
Honolulu was visited on 4 October where the BEAGLE was overhauled, captain Gill resigned. He was unable to understand the motive for the trip and had noticed that the Customs Officers were hard to satisfy coupling this fact with the absence of all preparations for trade; he considered it would be wise to sever his connection with the vessel which was a mysterious to him as a phantom ship.
Joseph Martin the first mate signed on in Hilo, was promoted to Captain.
After sailing from Honolulu she touched at various islands in the Pacific and finally she arrived in Callao. Peru in March 1892.
1 April 1892 sold at Callao to Mr. Silvino Cavalie a French commercial agent.
Then all traces of Bell and Davis and the BEAGLE are disappearing.
Sources: Ships of the Australia Station by John Bastock. Argus of 30 May 1892 a Melbourne newspaper.
.