Britomart HMS
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:23 am
New Zealand has given us a stamp with a picture of H.M.S. Britomart at Akaroa on August 11, 1840. This 10-gun brig, of 237 tons and 90ft long, with a complement of 70 officers and men, had a role in New Zealand history out of all proportion to her size.
On July 22, 1840, the brig was lying at Port Russell. North Island, New Zealand. Also in the bay was the French corvette 1 'Aube. The Maoris had signed the Treaty of Waitangi with Capt. Hobson, RN., some few months earlier, and he was officially H.M. Governor of New Zealand. The presence of the French ship disturbed him. There was a French colony at Akaroa, in South Island, and Hobson considered it advisable that this should be visited by a British naval vessel on a routine patrol before a French man-of-war called there.
Accordingly, he despatched the Britomart to Akarot on the dawn of July 23. During the night she had taken aboard two strange passengers,—strange because they had been secretly sworn in as magistrates. After the Britomart had sailed Capt. Hobson let it be assumed that she was bound to Port Nicholson, although his orders to Capt. Stanley were to get to Akaroa before I'Aube arrived there. H.M.S. Britomart was then 20 years old and in bad condition. She had to beat against strong head winds, some of her sails were blown to ribbons, one of her ports was stove-In, and she had 18in of water in the hold before she reached her destination on August 11. Upon her arrival the settlers were informed that a Court of Petty Sessions was to be held, and the British flag was flown from a speedily rigged mast. Although there were no cases to be tried the two magistrates remained "in court" until the arrival of l'Aube, 24 hours after the Britomart. Capt. Lavaud, seeing the administration of British justice apparently well established, accepted the situation without question and even took over the duties of guardship when the Britomart left. The 5d stamp Issued by New Zealand In 1940, to commemorate the centenary of the Dominion, shows
H.M.S.Britomart at Akaroa, while in the foreground two Maoris and a number of settlers can be seen cheering the hoisting of the Union Flag.
One further contribution H.M.S. Britomart made to New Zealand development. Throughout the summer of 1841 she lay anchored in the Waitemata while her boats took soundings. All the bays and inlets were sounded and charted. Then on the appointed day Capt. Hobson moved his "capital" from Port Russell, where his "Government House" was a converted barn in somebody else's garden to the new town on the Waitemata which he named Auckland after a former First Lord of the Admiralty. To celebrate the occasion the officers and men of H.M.S.Britomart organised the first regatta ever to be held in the Waite¬mata. A race for sailors in ships' boats had a prize of £5, while the Maoris had a prize of half-a-pound of tobacco per man for the winning paddlers in a canoe race. Her work in New Zealand accomplished, the Britomart sailed for Singapore, where she was sold for $5,000.
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