Modellers Shipyard Blog

On This Day June 16, 1869

2012-06-16T05:00:00.000+10:00

Captain Charles Sturt, one of Australia's great explorers, dies.

Captain Charles Sturt was born in India in 1795. He came to Australia in 1827, and soon after undertook to solve the mystery of where the inland rivers of New South Wales flowed. Because they appeared to flow towards the centre of the continent, the belief was held that they emptied into an inland sea. Drawing on the skills of experienced bushman and explorer Hamilton Hume, Sturt first traced the Macquarie River as far as the Darling, which he named after Governor Darling.

Pleased with Sturt's discoveries, Governor Darling sent Sturt to trace the course of the Murrumbidgee River, and to see whether it joined to the Darling. On this expedition, Sturt discovered that the Murrumbidgee River flowed into the Murray (previously named the Hume), as did the Darling. By following the Murray in a collapsible whaleboat, Sturt found that it flowed to the southern ocean, emptying out at Lake Alexandrina on the south coast. The expedition was valuable for opening up Australia's inland waterways to the transportation of people and goods.

Sturt led further expeditions into Australia's interior to determine conclusively whether there was an inland sea, but found only the desert and harsh conditions, completely unsuitable for settlement. In 1851, Sturt returned to England, where he died on 16 June 1869. He is commemorated by the City of Charles Sturt and suburb of Sturt in Adelaide, Charles Sturt University in regional New South Wales, and the Sturt Highway from Wagga Wagga to Adelaide.

On This Day June 14, 1789

2012-06-14T06:00:00.000+10:00

Captain William Bligh, after being cast adrift following the mutiny on the 'Bounty', arrives at Timor.

William Bligh was born in Plymouth, south-west England, on 9 September 1754. He was only 8 when he first went to sea. At age 22, he was chosen to join Captain Cook's crew on the 'Resolution', and became commander of the 'HMAV Bounty' eleven years later.

The famous mutiny on the Bountry occurred after Bligh left Tahiti on his way to the Caribbean. For reasons undetermined by historical records, Master's Mate Fletcher Christian led the mutiny, with the support of a small number of the ship's crew. Theories have abounded, foremost among them being Bligh's stern discipline and tendency to push his crew very hard. Bligh and his own supporters were provided with a 7m launch, a sextant and enough provisions to enable them to reach the closest ports, but no means of navigation. Bligh chose not to head for the closer Spanish ports, which would have slowed down the process of bringing the mutineers to justice, but instead completed a 41 day journey to Timor. From here, he stood a better chance of communicating quickly to British vessels which could pursue the mutineers.

After navigating some 5,600km from memory of Cook's charts and voyages, Bligh and his surviving crew arrived at Timor on 14 June 1789. After recovering in Timor and being tended to by the inhabitants of the Dutch colony, Captain Bligh finally returned to England, arriving there on 14 March 1790. His men had suffered starvation, scurvy and dehydration. Whilst some of the died from the ravages of the journey, many of them survived to serve in the Royal Navy once more.

On This Day June 10, 1770

2012-06-10T09:00:00.000+10:00

Captain Cook's "The Endeavour" runs aground and nearly sinks on the Great Barrier Reef.

Following Captain James Cook's observations in Tahiti of the transit of Venus across the sun, he sailed southwest, where he explored and mapped the coastline of New Zealand. He then continued west, making the first European sighting of Australia's eastern coast in April 1770. Claiming the continent for England, Cook sailed up the coast, charting and naming points of interest as he went.

Cape Tribulation, in far North Queensland, was so named by Captain Cook after his ship, the "Endeavour" struck the reef and nearly sank. The Endeavour managed to stay afloat for another week whilst the crew sought desperately for land, eventually sighting the harbour formed by the Endeavour River. The ship was landed on 10 June 1770, and Cook spent almost two months repairing it, thus giving rise to the fledgling township of Cooktown.

The harbour was originally named the Charco, but Cook renamed it Endeavour when he departed on 4 August 1770. At that stage, the town had developed into nothing more than a tent village. The spot where Cook beached his damaged ship is marked by a stone monolith, called Cook's Pillar, on the banks of the Endeavour River.

On This Day June 8, 1856

2012-06-08T03:00:00.000+10:00

The first free settlement is established on Norfolk Island.

Norfolk Island lies approximately 1,500 km northeast of Sydney, and along with two neighbouring islands forms one of Australia's external territories. The first European to discover Norfolk was Captain Cook, on 10 October 1774. Cook's reports of tall, straight trees (Norfolk pines) and flax-like plants piqued the interest of Britain, whose Royal Navy was dependent on flax for sails and hemp for ropes from Baltic sea ports. Norfolk Island promised a ready supply of these items, and its tall pines could be utilised as ships' masts. Governor Arthur Phillip, Captain of the First Fleet to New South Wales, was ordered to colonise Norfolk Island before the French could take it.

Following the arrival of the First Fleet in New South Wales, Lieutenant Philip Gidley King led a party of fifteen convicts and seven free men to take control of the island and prepare for its commercial development. They arrived on 6 March 1788. Neither the flax nor the timber industry proved to be viable, and the island developed as a farm, supplying Sydney with grain and vegetables during the early years of the colony's near-starvation. More convicts were sent, and many chose to remain after they had served their sentences. The initial Norfolk Island settlement was abandoned in 1813, but a second penal colony was re-established in 1824, as a place to send the very worst of the convicts. The convicts were treated accordingly and the island gained a reputation as a vicious penal colony. It, too, was abandoned in 1855, after transportation to Australia ceased.

The third settlement was established by descendants of Tahitians and the HMAV Bounty mutineers, resettled from the Pitcairn Islands which had become too small for their growing population. The British government had permitted the transfer of the Pitcairners to Norfolk, which was established as a colony separate from New South Wales but under the administration of that colony's governor. On 8 June 1856, 194 Pitcairn Islanders arrived to form the first free settlement. After the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, Norfolk Island was placed under the authority of the new Commonwealth government to be administered as an external territory. Norfolk Island was granted self-government in 1979.

On This Day June 7, 1825

2012-06-07T08:00:00.000+10:00

Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) officially separates from New South Wales.

Tasmania was first discovered by Abel Tasman on 24 November 1642. Tasman discovered the previously unknown island on his voyage past the "Great South Land", or "New Holland", as the Dutch called Australia. He named it "Antony Van Diemen's Land" in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia.

When the First Fleet arrived in 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip claimed the entire eastern coast for the British Empire, including Tasmania, though it was not yet proven to be separate from the mainland. In January 1799 Bass and Flinders completed their circumnavigation of Tasmania, proving it to be an island. Tasmania was settled as a separate colony in 1803, but continued to be administered by the Governor of New South Wales. On 7 June 1825, Van Diemen's Land was separated administratively from New South Wales, and Hobart Town was declared the capital of the colony. There remains some conflict regarding the date, as some sources state this as occurring on 14 June 1825.

On This Day June 4, 1629

2012-06-04T04:00:00.000+10:00

Dutch trading ship 'The Batavia' is shipwrecked off Australia's western coast.

The 'Batavia' was a ship built in Amsterdam in 1628. On 29 October 1628, the newly built Batavia, commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, sailed from Texel for the Dutch East Indies to obtain spices. During the voyage two of the crew, Jacobsz and Cornelisz, planned to hijack the ship, with the aim of starting a new life somewhere using the supply of trade gold and silver on board. After stopping at South Africa for supplies, Jacobsz deliberately steered the ship off course away from the rest of the fleet, planning to organise a mutiny against the captain at some stage.

On 4 June 1629 the ship struck a reef near Beacon Island, part of the Houtman Abrolhos island group off the Western Australian coast. 40 drowned but most of the crew and passengers were taken to nearby islands in the ship's longboat and yawl. The captain organised a group of senior officers, crew members and some passengers to search for drinking water on the mainland. Unsuccessful, they then headed north to the city of Batavia, now Jakarta. Their amazing journey took 33 days and all survived.

After they arrived in Batavia, a rescue attempt was made for the other survivors, but it was discovered that a mutiny had taken place. Cornelisz had planned to hijack any rescue ships, and organised the murder of 125 men, women and children. The rescue party overcame the mutineers, executing the major leaders, including Cornelisz. Two minor offenders were abandoned on Australia's mainland, and others were taken to be tried in Batavia. The mutiny and murders brought infamy to the story of the lost Batavia.

On 27 April 1971, relics and artifacts from the Batavia wreck were salvaged, later followed by the stern of the ship. In 1972 The Netherlands transferred all rights to Dutch shipwrecks on the Australian coasts to Australia. Some of the items, including human remains, which were excavated, are now on display in the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle, Australia. Others are held by the Geraldton Region Museum. Included in the relics is a stone arch which was intended to serve as a welcome arch for the city of Batavia.

On This Day June 3, 1769

2012-06-03T22:05:00.000+10:00

Captain Cook observes the transit of Venus across the sun, on the trip during which he would chart Australia's eastern coast.

Captain James Cook was not the first to discover Australia, as he was preceded by numerous Portuguese and Dutch explorers. He was, however, the first to sight and map the eastern coastline when he was sent to observe the transit of Venus across the sun from the vantage point of Tahiti. The transit of Venus occurs when the planet Venus passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, and its unlit side can be seen as a small black circle moving across the face of the Sun. Transits of Venus occur in pairs, eight years apart, approximately once every 120 years. Cook's ship, the 'Endeavour', departed England, on 25 August 1768. Cook reached Tahiti in time for his crew and scientists to set up their instrumentation necessary to observe and report on the transit, which occurred on 3 June 1769.

After observing the transit of Venus, Cook went on to search for Terra Australis Incognita, the great continent which some believed to extend round the pole. It was shortly after observing the transit of Venus that Cook came across New Zealand, which had already been discovered by Abel Tasman in 1642. He spent some months there, charting the coastline. Nearly a year later, he set sail east for New Holland, later Australia.

On This Day June 3, 1790

2012-06-03T11:30:00.000+10:00

The Lady Juliana is the first ship of the Second Fleet to arrive in Sydney Cove.

The First Fleet of convicts, which established the colony of New South Wales, arrived in Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. The Second Fleet left England with a cargo of 1026 convicts, bound for New South Wales, on 19 January 1790. The Fleet comprised six ships: Justinian, Lady Juliana, Surprize, Neptune, Scarborough and Guardian, although the latter struck ice and was unable to complete the voyage.

The Second Fleet became notorious for its cruelty to the mostly female convicts. The convicts were limited to a starvation diet, despite the provision of adequate foods, and hundreds of them succumbed to scurvy, fever and dysentery. Between 267 and 278 died during the voyage, compared to the loss of between 30 and 40 convicts on the First Fleet voyage under Captain Arthur Phillip.

The Lady Juliana was the first ship of the Second Fleet to reach New South Wales, arriving on 3 June 1790. The Lady Juliana had departed Plymouth on 29 July 1789 with 226 female convicts, and taken 309 days to reach Port Jackson, one of the slowest journeys made by a convict ship. When the convicts disembarked, marks of cruelty were evident in the injuries shown on their bodies. The condition of the convicts led to public outcry in England, and although attempts were made to bring the perpetrators of the cruelty to justice, the crew members responsible were never prosecuted.

On This Day June 3, 1787

2012-06-03T02:00:00.000+10:00

The First Fleet arrives in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, to take on extra supplies.

Conditions in England in the 18th century were tough: the industrial revolution had removed many people's opportunities to earn an honest wage as simpler tasks were replaced by machine labour. As unemployment rose, so did crime, especially the theft of basic necessities such as food and clothing. The British prison system was soon full to overflowing, and a new place had to be found to ship the prison inmates. The American colonies were no longer viable, following the American war of Independence. Following Captain Cook's voyage to the South Pacific, the previously uncharted continent of New Holland proved to be suitable.

On 18 August 1786 the decision was made to send a colonisation party of convicts, military and civilian personnel to Botany Bay, New South Wales, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, who was appointed Governor-designate. The First Fleet consisted of 775 convicts on board six transport ships, accompanied by officials, crew, marines and their families who together totalled 645. As well as the convict transports, there were two naval escorts and three storeships.

The First Fleet assembled in Portsmouth, England, and set sail on 13 May 1787. On 3 June 1787, the fleet arrived at Santa Cruz, Tenerife in the Canary islands, to take on board fresh water, vegetables and meat. Phillip and the chief officers were entertained by the local governor, while one convict tried unsuccessfully to escape. The First Fleet arrived in New South Wales in January 1788. Australia Day, celebrated annually on January 26, commemorates the landing of the First Fleet at Port Jackson, and the raising of the Union Jack to claim the land as belonging to England.

On This Day June 2, 1841

2012-06-02T03:00:00.000+10:00

Eyre's expedition across the Nullarbor is saved when he meets Captain Rossiter, of the whaler 'Mississippi'.

Edward John Eyre, born 5 August 1815, was the first white man to cross southern Australia from Adelaide to the west, travelling across the Nullarbor Plain to King George's Sound, now called Albany. Eyre originally intended to cross the continent from south to north, taking with him his overseer, John Baxter, and three Aborigines. He was forced to revise his plans when his way became blocked by the numerous saltpans of South Australia, leading him to believe that a gigantic inland sea in the shape of a horseshoe prevented access to the north.

Following this fruitless attempt, Eyre regrouped at Streaky Bay on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula. He then continued west, which had never before been attempted, in a gruelling journey across the Nullarbor, during which his party faced starvation and thirst. Eyre's overseer, Baxter, was killed on the night of 29 April 1841, as he tried to stop two of the expedition's Aborigines from raiding the meagre supplies. After Baxter died, Eyre was left with just one loyal companion, the Aborigine, Wylie. The two continued on, trying to outrun the Aborigines whilst susbsisting on very few rations.

The pair faced starvation a number of times during their journey, in between rest stops in places when they found food was abundant. On 2 June 1841, Eyre and Wylie were travelling along the shore near Thistle Cove when they encountered the French whaler 'Mississippi'. Attracting the attention of the ship's crew by way of a fire, they were met at the beach and taken aboard the Mississippi as guests of Captain Rossiter. Here, they were given ample food and water, and their horses even shod by the ship's blacksmith. Loaded with supplies from the ship, Eyre continued his westward journey on 14 June. Eyre named the inlet Rossiter Bay after the ship's captain, though it was later renamed Mississippi Point.

On This Day June 1, 1850

2012-06-01T08:00:00.000+10:00

The first convicts arrive in Fremantle, Western Australia, to help populate the waning Swan River colony.

The Swan River colony, established on Australia's western coast in 1829, was begun as a free settlement. Captain Charles Fremantle declared the Swan River Colony for Britain on 2 May 1829. The first ships with free settlers to arrive were the Parmelia on June 1 and HMS Sulphur on June 8. Three merchant ships arrived 4-6 weeks later: the Calista on August 5, the St Leonard on August 6 and the Marquis of Anglesey on August 23. Although the population spread out in search of good land, mainly settling around the southwestern coastline at Bunbury, Augusta and Albany, the two original separate townsites of the colony developed slowly into the port city of Fremantle and the Western Australian capital city of Perth.

For the first fifteen years, the people of the colony were generally opposed to accepting convicts, although the idea was occasionally debated, especially by those who sought to employ convict labour for building projects. Serious lobbying for Western Australia to become a penal colony began in 1845 when the York Agricultural Society petitioned the Legislative Council to bring convicts out from England on the grounds that the colony's economy was on the brink of collapse due to an extreme shortage of labour. Whilst later examination of the circumstances proves that there was no such shortage of labour in the colony, the petition found its way to the British Colonial Office, which in turn agreed to send out a small number of convicts to Swan River.

The first group of convicts to populate Fremantle arrived on 1 June 1850. Between 1850 and 1868, ultimately 9721 convicts were transported to Western Australia. The last convict ship to Western Australia, the Hougoumont, left Britain in 1867 and arrived in Western Australia on 10 January 1868.

On This Day May 30, 1886

2012-05-30T11:00:00.000+10:00

The Ly-ee-Moon steamer runs aground off Cape Green lighthouse in southern NSW, Australia, killing 71.
The Ly-ee-Moon was built as a paddle steamer in 1859 by the Thames Shipbuilding Company of Blackall, London, England. Originally designed for use in the opium trade, she was also rigged with three masts and sails, and was the fastest steamer known at that time. In the early 1860s, during the American civil war, Ly-ee-Moon was used as a blockade runner, running in and out of Charleston, South Carolina. Following the civil war, the steamer moved to Hong Kong, where she remained for almost a decade. The steamer was then was sold to the Australasian Steam Navigation Company Ltd in the late 1870s. After catching fire whilst being refitted in Sydney and being scuttled to put out the fire, the ship was refloated and repaired, at a cost of approximately £4,000. The Ly-ee-Moon returned to service in 1878 and ran the Sydney to Melbourne route.

The Ly-ee-Moon departed Melbourne for Sydney on 29 May 1886 with 55 passengers and 41 crew aboard, carrying a varied cargo of staple foods, clothing, grains and alcohol. On the evening of 30 May 1886, the steamer was approaching Gabo Island, just south of the New South Wales/Victoria border, when it was wrecked off a reef near Cape Green lighthouse. The lighthouse keepers attempted to rescue the passengers and crew, but ultimately 71 people died - 41 passengers and 31 crew. The wreckage of the Ly-ee-Moon remains where the ship sank on that fateful night.

On This Day May 25, 1830

2012-05-25T13:30:00.000+10:00

After tracing the Murray River for thousands of kilometres, Sturt's party finally arrives back in Sydney.

Captain Charles Sturt was born in India in 1795. He came to Australia in 1827, and soon after undertook to solve the mystery of where the inland rivers of New South Wales flowed. Because they appeared to flow towards the centre of the continent, the belief was held that they emptied into an inland sea. Sturt first traced the Macquarie River as far as the Darling, which he named after Governor Darling. Pleased with Sturt's discoveries, the following year Governor Darling sent Sturt to trace the course of the Murrumbidgee River, and to see whether it joined to the Darling. Sturt followed the Murrumbidgee in a whaleboat and discovered that the Murrumbidgee River flowed into the Murray (previously named the Hume).

Sturt continued to trace the course of the Murray southwards, arriving at Lake Alexandrina, from which he could see the open sea of the southern coast, in February 1830. However, the expedition then had to face an agonising journey rowing back up the Murray against the current. The men rowed in shifts from dawn until dusk each day, low on rations, through extreme heat, and against the floodwaters heading downstream. In March 1830 they reached the junction of the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers. By the time they reached their depot at Maude on the Murrumbidgee, they had rowed and sailed 3,000 km on Australia's inland rivers, with no loss of life. The party reached Wantabadgery Station at the point of starvation, where they recovered until returning to Sydney on 25 May 1830.

Sturt's discoveries were significant, for they allowed for the development of paddle-steamer transportation of goods and passengers along Australia's inland waterways. The exploration also allowed for the opening up of more fertile pasture and grazing land in southern Australia.

On This Day May 20, 1506

2012-05-20T14:36:00.000+10:00

Christopher Columbus, discoverer of the "New World", dies, believing all his journeys had been along the East Coast of Asia.

Christopher Columbus was born circa 30 October 1451: there is some doubt as to his actual country and region of birth. Columbus was determined to pioneer a western sea route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. On 3 August 1492 Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa Marýa, the Pinta, and the Niña. During his journeys, Columbus explored the West Indies, South America, and Central America. He became the first explorer and trader to cross the Atlantic Ocean and sight the land of the Americas, on 12 October 1492, under the flag of Castile, a former kingdom of modern day Spain. It is most probable that the land he first sighted was Watling Island in the Bahamas.

Columbus returned to Spain laden with gold and new discoveries from his travels, including the previously unknown tobacco plant and the pineapple fruit. The success of his first expedition prompted his commissioning for a second voyage to the New World, and he set out from Cýdiz in September 1493. He explored Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and various smaller Caribbean islands, and further ensuing explorations yielded discoveries such as Venezuela. Through all this, Columbus believed that he was travelling to parts of Asia. He believed Hispaniola was Japan, and that the peaks of Cuba were the Himalayas of India.

Although passionate about converting the world to Christianity, Columbus fell out with the Spanish King and Queen, as he repeatedly suggested slavery as a way to profit from the new colonies. These suggestions were all rejected by the monarchs, who preferred to view the natives as future members of Christendom. Columbus was stripped of his governorship of Hispaniola for mismanagement and his treatment of rebellious settlers and Indians. Thus, although he became wealthy as a result of his explorations, he was not given the rewards he felt he was due. Columbus died on 20 May 1506, still believing that he had found the route to the Asian continent.

Shipwreck - SS ADMELLA 1858

2012-05-19T13:08:00.000+10:00

The wreck of the SS Admella in the early hours of August 6th 1859 was only the beginning of a horrific week for survivors who remained on board, in sight of land, while authorities struggled to rescue them from the stricken steamer. The loss of 89 lives, mostly due to cold and exposure, makes the wreck one of the worst maritime disasters in Australian history.

It was the first major rescue incident that involved the cooperation of a large number of organisations and individuals across the newly formed colonies of Victoria and South Australia. In many ways it was the basis of joining together these isolated communities into a regional group, and was the beginning of many ongoing organizations across the south east of Australia.

The Admella was sailing from Adelaide to Melbourne when it struck Carpenters Reef on the Southern Coastline of South Australia. A design fault in its iron hull caused the ship to break into three after only 15 minutes, leaving passengers and crew clinging to the wreckage with minimal water and food.

Early attempts to reach land were fruitless; people were swept out to sea or drowned in the boiling surf. It was nearly two days later when two seamen, Knapmann and Leach, made it to shore and made a 20-mile walk to Cape Northumberland lighthouse to raise the alarm.

The lighthouse was without telegraph and so lighthouse keeper Mr Germain, whose own horse had died a few days earlier, had to trek to a nearby farm to borrow a horse in order to reach Mount Gambier and to inform authorities in Adelaide 450km north east and Portland 150km west. The Corio left from Adelaide and the Ladybird from Portland but, due to poor information, both rescue boats had difficulty locating the now desperate Admella.

Meanwhile the wreck was battered by the heavy swell. Captain McEwan shared out what little food remained and had to prevent survivors from drinking salt water, which had begun to take the lives of those who drank it. Others, exhausted by their ordeal, simply slipped into the sea to their death. In the words of one lifeboat captain they were "...more like statues than human beings; their eyes fixed, their lips black, for want of water, and their limbs bleached white and swollen through exposure to the relentless surf..."
In Adelaide, the news of the disaster brought hundreds of people to the telegraph office to hear the story as it unfolded, and both Houses of Parliament adjourned.

On Wednesday 10th, it was reported that the Corio was beside the wreck and that around 20 survivors were still on board. Those on shore lit fires to help the vessel stay near the wreck site.

Over the next few days, several rescue attempts were made by the Corio and Ladybird rescue boats. Rockets were fired to try to get lines aboard but mountainous seas and severe storms continually drove the rescuers back and lives were lost as the lifeboats were swamped. Ffurther attempts were made to launch one of Admella's own lifeboats, which had washed ashore and patched with soap and canvas, but it too was unsuccessful.

By Saturday, eight days after the wreck, the Admella's lifeboat and the Corio's boat were launched from the beach and managed to crash through the surf and reach the wreck. Eventually three people made it to shore in one boat, but the second boat capsized, drowning a man saved from the wreck.

The lifeboat Portland, which had been towed to the scene by the Lady Bird had made an earlier attempt to reach the wreck but was driven back by the raging seas. Now it was finally successful in coming alongside the wreck and the remaining 19 survivors jumped and fell into the boat. They were transferred to the Lady Bird which returned to Portland. The lifeboat is now housed in the Portland Maritime Museum.

Following the commission of inquiry into the wreck of the Admella, the loss was attributed to the effects of a current which pushed the vessel off course, although investigations were also held into a magnetic disturbance in the area of Cape Northumberland which may have affected the compasses on iron hulled ships. The inquest also resulted in the installation of the telegraph at the Cape Northumberland lighthouse.

One further story was that of the horses on board. Hurtle Fisher was transporting racehorses on the Admella and both he and his champion horse, The Barber, miraculously survived and went on to race in Melbourne, but never won again.

In an unusual turn of events, another ship called Corio sank in exactly the same location in the 1950s.
Today the Admella Dunes and nearby Admella Flats stand in memory of the fated steamer and the 89 aboard who perished.

On This Day April 29, 1770

2012-04-29T08:30:00.000+10:00

Captain James Cook discovers and names Botany Bay.

James Cook was born at Marton in North Yorkshire, on 27 October 1728. As the son of a farm labourer, he held no great ambitions, being apprenticed in a grocer/haberdashery when he was 16. Lack of aptitude in the trade led his employer to introduce Cook to local shipowners, who took him on as a merchant navy apprentice. Here he was educated in algebra, trigonometry, navigation, and astronomy, which later set Cook up to command his own ship.

Cook was hired in 1766 by the Royal Society to travel to the Pacific Ocean to observe and record the transit of Venus across the Sun. Following this, Cook's next orders were to search the south Pacific for Terra Australis Incognita, the great southern continent that many believed must extend around the southern pole. He came across New Zealand, which Abel Tasman had discovered in 1642, and spent some months there, charting the coastline.

Nearly a year later, Cook set sail west for New Holland, which was later to become Australia. On 29 April 1770 Cook's vessel, the Endeavour, sailed into Botany Bay, after first sighting the eastern coast of Australia ten days earlier. He described the bay as being "tolerably well sheltered", and initially named it Stingray Bay, after the large numbers of stingray he noted. The name was later changed to Botany Bay due to the vast numbers of new and unique botanical specimens noted by the ship's botanists, including Joseph Banks. Cook named Cape Solander and Cape Banks after Banks and Finnish botanist Daniel Solander. He then landed at Kurnell, allowing the cabin boy, Isaac Smith, to be the first known European to step foot on the soil of "New South Wales".

On This Day April 28, 1789

2012-04-28T09:00:00.000+10:00

Fletcher Christian leads the mutiny against Captain Bligh on the 'HMS Bounty'.

Fletcher Christian was born in Cumberland, England, on 25 September 1764. He went to sea at the age of sixteen, and two years later he sailed aboard HMS Cambridge where he met William Bligh for the first time. Bligh, born on 9 September 1754, had also started his seagoing career at the age of 16, quickly rising through the officer ranks. Bligh and Christian were very close during their early years together.

The 'HMS Bounty' sailed with a crew of 45 men from Spithead, England in December 1787 under Captain William Bligh, bound for Tahiti. Their mission was to collect breadfruit plants to be transplanted in the West Indies as cheap food for the slaves. After collecting those plants, Bounty was returning to England when, on the morning of 28 April 1789, Fletcher Christian and part of the crew mutinied, taking over the ship, and setting the Captain and 18 crew members adrift in the ship’s 23-foot launch. Captain Bligh sailed nearly 6000km back to England, arriving there on 14 March 1790, where he was initially court-martialed and ultimately acquitted. The mutineers took HMS Bounty back to Tahiti, and collected 6 Polynesian men and 12 women. They then continued on to Pitcairn Island, arriving there on 15 January 1790. After burning the ship they established a settlement and colony on Pitcairn Island that still exists.

In 1808, Captain Mayhew Folger of the American sealing ship 'Topaz' landed at Pitcairn Islands. By that stage, many of the mutineers had succumbed to disease, suicide or been victims of murder. Of all the men, both whites and Polynesians, only John Adams survived. Adams, by then a changed man after his conversion to Christianity, went on to become the respected leader on Pitcairn. He died on 5 March 1829, forty years after the mutiny.

On This Day April 27, 1971

2012-04-27T14:57:00.000+10:00

Relics from the wreck of The Batavia are recovered in Houtman Abrolhos, off the coast of Western Australia.

The 'Batavia' was a ship built in Amsterdam in 1628. On 29 October 1628, the newly built Batavia, commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, sailed from Texel for the Dutch East Indies to obtain spices. During the voyage two of the crew, Jacobsz and Cornelisz, planned to hijack the ship, with the aim of starting a new life somewhere using the supply of trade gold and silver on board. After stopping at South Africa for supplies, Jacobsz deliberately steered the ship off course away from the rest of the fleet, planning to organise a mutiny against the captain at some stage.

On 4 June 1629 the ship struck a reef near Beacon Island, part of the Houtman Abrolhos island group off the Western Australian coast. 40 drowned but most of the crew and passengers were taken to nearby islands in the ship's longboat and yawl. The captain organised a group of senior officers, crew members and some passengers to search for drinking water on the mainland. Unsuccessful, they then headed north to the city of Batavia, now Jakarta. Their amazing journey took 33 days and all survived.

After they arrived in Batavia, a rescue attempt was made for the other survivors, but it was discovered that a mutiny had taken place. Cornelisz had planned to hijack any rescue ships, and organised the murder of 125 men, women and children. The rescue party overcame the mutineers, executing the major leaders, including Cornelisz. Two minor offenders were abandoned on Australia's mainland, and others were taken to be tried in Batavia. The mutiny and murders brought infamy to the story of the lost Batavia.

On 27 April 1971, relics and artifacts from the Batavia wreck were salvaged, later followed by the stern of the ship. In 1972 The Netherlands transferred all rights to Dutch shipwrecks on the Australian coasts to Australia. Some of the items, including human remains, which were excavated, are now on display in the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle, Australia. Others are held by the Geraldton Region Museum. Included in the relics is a stone arch which was intended to serve as a welcome arch for the city of Batavia.

On This Day April 27, 1521

2012-04-27T10:30:00.000+10:00

Sailor and explorer Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines.

Ferdinand Magellan was born in Sabrosa, near Vila Real in the province of Trás-os-Montes, Portugal, in the year 1480. He became the first person to lead an expedition sailing westward from Europe to Asia and to cross the Pacific Ocean.

In 1519, with the intention of reaching the Spice Islands by sailing west around South America, Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean, sailing across it. He did not complete his final voyage as he was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines, on 27 April 1521. Magellan did not complete the entire circumnavigation, but as the leader of the expedition, he is credited with being the man who led the first successful attempt to circumnavigate the Earth. He died further west than the Spice Islands, which he had visited on earlier voyages, making him one of the first individuals to cross all the longitudes of the globe.

The Strait of Magellan is a navigable, but extremely hazardous, route immediately south of mainland South America, and an important natural passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. Magellan was the first European to navigate the strait in 1520, during his global circumnavigation voyage.

On This Day April 24, 1804

2012-04-24T10:30:00.000+10:00

The first cemetery is established in the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, Australia.

The first European explorer to report the existence of what is now called Tasmania was Dutch seaman Abel Janszoon Tasman, of the Dutch East India Company. In November 1642, he discovered a previously unknown island on his voyage past the "Great South Land", or "New Holland", as the Dutch called Australia. He named it "Antony Van Diemen's Land" in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia.

Hobart is the capital city of Tasmania, Australia, and is the second oldest city in Australia, with Sydney being the oldest. The city began as a penal colony at Risdon Cove on the Derwent River in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 to offset British concerns over the presence of French explorers. On 24 April 1804, the first cemetery was established on Van Diemen's Land. Named St David's Cemetery, it has since been transformed into St David's Park.

On This Day April 22, 1788

2012-04-22T09:30:00.000+10:00

Governor Arthur Phillip sets out to explore Sydney Harbour.

Captain Arthur Phillip was Governor of the colony of New South Wales, the first settlement of Europeans on Australian soil. Phillip was a practical man who suggested that convicts with experience in farming, building and crafts be included in the First Fleet, but his proposal was rejected. Thus, he faced many obstacles in his attempts to establish the new colony, including the fact that British farming methods, seeds and implements were unsuitable for use in the different climate and soil.

On 22 April 1788, less than three months after the arrival of the First Fleet to Australia, Phillip set out to explore Sydney Harbour, in search of more land suitable for settlement. Together with eleven men and enough provisions for six days, Phillip travelled as far as he could by boat up Sydney Harbour, tracing the Parramatta River to the point where Parramatta itself would be established six months later, as Rose Hill. The party then spent four days travelling overland towards the Blue Mountains. Further progress was halted by ravines and untraversible countryside, and insufficient supplies, and Phillip returned to Sydney Cove determined to send out further exploration parties.

On This Day April 20, 1657

2012-04-20T11:00:00.000+10:00

The Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife was a military operation in the Anglo–Spanish War (1654–1660) in which an English fleet under Admiral Robert Blake attacked a Spanish treasure fleet that had already landed the treasure at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands. Most of the Spanish merchantmen were scuttled and the remainder were burnt by the English.

England had decided to support France in her war in the Low Countries with the Spanish. War was openly declared in October 1655 and endorsed when the Second Protectorate Parliament assembled the following year. One of the prime enterprises was the blockade of Cadiz, which had not previously been attempted on such a scale. Robert Blake was to be in charge and also to come up with methods that he had used in his previous encounters with the Dutch and Barbary pirates.

Blake kept the fleet at sea throughout an entire winter in order to maintain the blockade. A further six ships were sent from England as reinforcements towards the end of 1656, including the George, which became Blake's flagship. In February 1657, Blake received intelligence that the convoy from Mexico was on its way across the Atlantic. Although his captains wanted to search for the Spanish galleons immediately, Blake refused to divide his forces and waited until victualling ships from England arrived to re-provision his fleet at the end of March. In the meantime a Spanish convoy was destroyed by one of Blake's captains; Richard Stayner. After this Blake (with only two ships to watch Cadiz), sailed from Cadiz Bay on 13 April 1657 to attack the plate fleet, which had docked at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands to await an escort to Spain.

Blake's fleet arrived off Santa Cruz on 19 April. Santa Cruz lies in a deeply-indented bay and the harbour was defended by a castle armed with forty guns and a number of smaller forts connected by a triple line of breastworks to shelter musketeers. Seventeen Spanish ships were moored in a semicircle in the harbour under cover of the shore batteries, including seven great galleons of the plate fleet.

In an operation similar to the raid on the Barbary pirates of Porto Farina in Tunisia in 1655, Blake planned to send twelve frigates under the command of (now) Rear-Admiral Stayner in the Speaker into the harbour to attack the galleons while he followed in the George with the rest of the fleet to bombard the shore batteries.

The attack began at 9 o'clock in the morning of 20 April. Steyner's division manoeuvred alongside the Spanish ships, which protected the English ships to some extent from the guns of the castle and forts. No shot was fired from the English ships until they had moved into position and dropped anchor. Blake saw what the Spanish had not; that the six galleons masked the fire of the other ten ships.While the frigates attacked the galleons, Blake's heavier warships sailed into the harbour to bombard the shore defences. Blake ordered that no prizes were to be taken; the Spanish fleet was to be utterly destroyed. Most of the Spanish fleet, made up of smaller armed merchantmen, were quickly silenced by the superior gunnery of Stayner's warships. The two great galleons, strongly built and powerfully armed, fought on for several hours. Blake's division cleared the breastworks and smaller forts; smoke from the gunfire and burning ships worked to the advantage of the English by obscuring their ships from the Spanish batteries.

Around noon, the flagship of the Spanish admiral Don Diego de Egues caught fire; shortly afterwards it was destroyed when the powder magazine exploded. English sailors took to boats to board Spanish ships and set them on fire. By 3 o'clock in the afternoon, all sixteen Spanish ships in the harbour were sunk, surrendered or ablaze. Contrary to orders, the Swiftsure and four other frigates each took a surrendered ship as a prize and attempted to tow it out of the harbour. Blake sent peremptory orders that the prizes were to be burnt. He had to repeat his order three times before the reluctant captains obeyed.

Having achieved its objective of destroying the Spanish vessels, the English fleet was faced with the hazardous task of withdrawing from Santa Cruz harbour under continuing fire from the forts. According to accounts the wind miraculously shifted from the north-east to the south-west at exactly the right moment to carry Blake's ships out of the harbour. However, this story is probably based upon a misunderstanding of a report pertaining to general weather conditions on the voyage as a whole.The English fleet worked its way back out to the open sea by warping out, or hauling on anchor ropes, a tactic Blake had introduced during the raid on Porto Farina. The Speaker, which was the first ship to enter the harbour and last to leave, had been badly damaged, but no English ships were lost in the battle.

The Spanish treasure from Mexico had been unloaded and secured ashore. Blake was unable to seize it but it was also temporarily unavailable to the government in Madrid. Having had no more than forty-eight men killed and 120 wounded, Blake's victory established England's reputation as a leading European naval power.

News of the victory reached England the following month. On 28 May, Parliament voted to reward Blake with a jewel worth £500, which was equivalent to the reward voted to General Thomas Fairfax for his victory at the Battle of Naseby in 1645. Richard Stayner was knighted by Oliver Cromwell.Blake received orders to return home in June. He made one further voyage to Salé in Morocco, where he succeeded in concluding a treaty to secure the release of English slaves. He returned to Cadiz in mid-July and handed command of the fleet to his flag captain, John Stoakes. Leaving nineteen ships to maintain the blockade, Blake sailed for England with eleven ships most in need of repair. However, Blake's health was in terminal decline. Worn out by his years of campaigning, he died aboard his flagship the George on 7 August 1657 as his fleet approached Plymouth Sound.

On This Day April 19, 1770

2012-04-19T09:30:00.000+10:00

Captain Cook and his crew first sight the eastern coast of Australia.

Captain James Cook was not the first to discover Australia, as he was preceded by numerous Portuguese and Dutch explorers. However, he was the first to sight and map the eastern coastline. Cook's ship, the 'Endeavour', departed Plymouth, England, on 26 August 1768. After completing the objective of his mission, which was to observe the transit of Venus from the vantage point of Tahiti, Cook went on to search for Terra Australis Incognita, the great continent which some believed to extend round the pole. He first came across New Zealand, which had already been discovered by Abel Tasman in 1642. He spent some months there, charting the coastline. Nearly a year later, he set sail east.

On 19 April 1770, officer of the watch, Lieutenant Zachary Hicks, sighted land and alerted Captain Cook. Cook made out low sandhills which he named Point Hicks, although he did not yet know whether they formed part of an island or a continent. Point Hicks lies on the far southeastern corner of the Australian continent, and Cook chose to fly before unfavourable winds up the eastern coast. Cook went on to chart the east coast of what was then known as New Holland, and claimed it for Great Britain under the name of New South Wales.

On This Day April 14, 1912

2012-04-14T09:30:00.000+10:00

The luxurious and unsinkable 'Titanic' hits an iceberg, eventually sinking, killing 1517 people.

The RMS Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time of its launching. It was a White Star Line ocean liner built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland and, along with its sister ships Olympic and the soon to be built Britannic, was intended to compete with rival company Cunard Line's Lusitania and Mauretania. For its time, the ship was unsurpassed in its luxury and opulence. The ship offered an onboard swimming pool, gymnasium, a Turkish bath, library and squash court. Its ornate interior design, elaborate wood panelling, expensive furniture and other elegant decorations placed it in a class of its own. Further, it was considered the pinnacle of naval architecture and technological achievement, and reported by The Shipbuilder magazine to be "practically unsinkable.

The Titanic departed on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, bound for New York City, New York, on Wednesday, 10 April 1912, with Captain Edward J. Smith in command. On 14 April 1912, the temperatures had dropped to near freezing. Captain Smith, in response to iceberg warnings received via wireless over the previous days, had altered Titanic's course about 20 km south of the normal shipping route. At 1:45pm, a message from the steamer Amerika warned that large icebergs lay in Titanic's path, but this warning, and others, were never relayed to the bridge. The ship hit an iceberg shortly after 11:40pm on the 14th, buckling the hull in several places and popping out rivets below the waterline over a length of 90 metres. The watertight doors closed as water started filling the first five watertight compartments, one more than Titanic could stay afloat with. The huge volume of water weighed the ship down past the top of the watertight bulkheads, allowing water to flow into the other compartments.

Some first- and second-class passengers were able to access the lifeboats quickly, but third-class passengers, many of whom were immigrants hoping to find a better life in America, were unable to navigate their way to the lifeboats through the complex of corridors. While all first- and second-class children save one survived the sinking, more third-class women and children were lost than saved. In all, 1517 people were lost in the disaster, whilst 706 survived. Most of the deaths were caused by victims succumbing to hypothermia in the -2°C water.

On This Day April 10, 1912

2012-04-10T10:00:00.000+10:00

The RMS Titanic departs on its maiden voyage.

The RMS Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time of its launching. It was a White Star Line ocean liner built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland and, along with its sister ships Olympic and the soon to be built Britannic, was intended to compete with rival company Cunard Line's Lusitania and Mauretania. The interior of the luxury ship was completed in January 1912, and the finishing touches were completed by early February. the Titanic was considered the pinnacle of naval architecture and technological achievement, and reported by The Shipbuilder magazine to be "practically unsinkable.

The Titanic underwent sea trials near Belfast for a total of 30 minutes in the opening days of April, and the trials were deemed successful. The ship then departed on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, bound for New York City, New York, the day after the sea trials, Wednesday, 10 April 1912, with Captain Edward J Smith in command.

On 14 April 1912, the Titanic sank. Captain Smith, in response to iceberg warnings received via wireless over the previous days, had altered Titanic's course about 20 km south of the normal shipping route. At 1:45pm, a message from the steamer Amerika warned that large icebergs lay in Titanic's path, but this warning, and others, were never relayed to the bridge. The ship hit an iceberg shortly after 11:40pm on the 14th, buckling the hull in several places and popping out rivets below the waterline over a length of 90 metres. The watertight doors closed as water started filling the first five watertight compartments, one more than Titanic could stay afloat with. The huge volume of water weighed the ship down past the top of the watertight bulkheads, allowing water to flow into the other compartments. While some passengers were able to access the lifeboats quickly, third-class passengers, many of whom were immigrants hoping to find a better life in America, were unable to navigate their way to the lifeboats through the complex of corridors. All first- and second-class children save one survived the sinking, but more third-class women and children were lost than saved. In all, 1517 people were lost in the disaster, whilst 706 survived.