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H.M.S.Blanche is a naval sloop which visited the islands in 1874. The ship's name is one of the oldest in the history of the Navy, dating back to 1120 AD when Prince William, the only legitimate son of Henry I, ordered "La Blanche Nef," or "The White Ship", to be built. She was ingloriously lost whilst carrying about 300 passengers (including princes and princesses together with about 140 nobles, 18 ladies of high rank, servants, etc.) from Barfleur to England, in November, 1120, commanded by Capt. Thomas Fitz-Stephen. Henry I, having completed a treaty with King Louis, embarked at Barfleur for England, his two sons and daughter travelling on another of the vessels of the fleet, the White Ship. The crew of the vessel, intoxicated by the wine served to them by the Prince's orders, to race the royal galley carrying the King, allowed the ship to get entangled among the rocks of the Ras de Catteville. When the ship first struck, the seamen got out a boat, and put Prince William and a few more into it; these pushed off and might have escaped, had not the Prince insisted on returning to the rescue of his half sister. As the boat neared the ship, so many people leapt into her that she capsized, and all were lost, except one man who survived by clinging to the mast.
H.M.S. Blanche shown on the stamp was a 6-gun screw sloop, launched at Chatham in 1867. She had a displacement of 1,755 tons; engines of 2,158 horse power and 13.5 knots speed. Her length, beam and draft were 212 ft., 36 ft. and 16 ft. She was armed with two 7-in, and four 64-pdr. guns. In September 1868, under command of Capt. John E. Montgomerie, R.N., she shelled one or two villages as a punitive measure at Rodora Bay, in the Solomon Islands. She is shown on the stamp because she visited the Turks and Caicos Islands in 1874. She was sold in 1886 for £3,600.
SG397, Papua SG555 and 861MS. Sea Breezes 1/74