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HMS Orpheus (1861)
HMS ''Orpheus'' was a ''Jason''-class Royal Navy corvette that served as the flagship of the Australian squadron. ''Orpheus'' sank off the west coast of Auckland, New Zealand on 7 February 1863: 189 crew out of the ship's complement of 259 died in the disaster, making it the worst maritime tragedy to occur in New Zealand waters. The ship HMS ''Orpheus'' (named after the Greek hero) was a ''Jason''-class corvette, a screw-driven vessel built in Chatham Dockyard in Kent, England, in 1861. She was owned by the Royal Navy, and was 69 metres long with a crew of 259. ''Orpheus'' was commanded by Captain Robert Heron Burton. She displayed a broad pennant to indicate that Commodore William Farquharson Burnett, senior officer of HM ships and vessels on the Australian and New Zealand Stations, was also on board. It was wrecked when delivering naval supplies and troop reinforcements to Auckland for the New Zealand Wars. Background ''Orpheus's'' first journey was in December 1861 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Brydges Beechey
Richard Brydges Beechey (1808 – 14 March 1895) was an Anglo-Irish painter and admiral in the Royal Navy. Early life Beechey was born to two British painters, Sir William Beechey and his second wife, Anne Jessop.John Wilson, ‘Beechey, Sir William (1753–1839)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 200accessed 2 May 2017/ref> His brothers included the British sea captain and painter Frederick William Beechey, the portraitist Henry William Beechey and the painter George Duncan Beechey. Beechey joined the Royal Navy at the age of 14, and he eventually rose to the rank of admiral. Like his father and some of his brothers, he was a celebrated painter, who illustrated various ports and naval scenes. Career After the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, Beechey sailed in HMS ''Blossom'', commanded by his brother Frederick William Beechey, into the Pacific, and then to the Bering Strait to attempt to support the Franklin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Propeller
A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working fluid such as water or air. Propellers are used to pump fluid through a pipe or duct, or to create thrust to propel a boat through water or an aircraft through air. The blades are specially shaped so that their rotational motion through the fluid causes a pressure difference between the two surfaces of the blade by Bernoulli's principle which exerts force on the fluid. Most marine propellers are screw propellers with helical blades rotating on a propeller shaft (ship), propeller shaft with an approximately horizontal axis. History Early developments The principle employed in using a screw propeller is derived from sculling. In sculling, a single blade is moved through an arc, from side to side taking care to keep presenting the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waitematā Harbour
Waitematā Harbour is the main access by sea to Auckland, New Zealand. For this reason it is often referred to as Auckland Harbour, despite the fact that it is one of two harbours adjoining the city. The harbour forms the northern and eastern coasts of the Auckland isthmus and is crossed by the Auckland Harbour Bridge. It is matched on the southern side of the city by the shallower waters of the Manukau Harbour. With an area of , it connects the city's main port and the Auckland waterfront to the Hauraki Gulf and the Pacific Ocean. It is sheltered from Pacific storms by Auckland's North Shore, Rangitoto Island, and Waiheke Island. Etymology The oldest Māori name of the harbour was Te Whanga-nui o Toi (The Big Bay of Toi), named after Toi, an early Māori explorer. The name ''Waitematā'' means "Te Mata Waters", which according to some traditions refers to a mauri stone (a stone of Māori religious significance) called Te Mata, which was placed on Boat Rock (in the ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Harrier (1854)
HMS ''Harrier'' was a Royal Navy screw sloop launched in 1854. She took part in the Crimean War, served on the Australia Station and took part in the New Zealand Wars. She was broken up in 1865 Construction ''Harrier'' was launched on 13 May 1854 from Pembroke Dockyard.Bastock, p.34. Service history Crimean War From 1854 to 1856 ''Harrier'' took part in the Crimean War as part of the naval force in the Baltic Sea. She served on the South Atlantic Station before refitting in Portsmouth in 1860. Australia station She recommissioned on 29 October 1860 for the Australia Station. She undertook a punitive action against Fijian natives in 1863. New Zealand Wars She took part in the rescue operations when was wrecked in Manukau Harbour, New Zealand and was also grounded but was refloated. She undertook operations during the Invasion of Waikato and the Tauranga Campaign in New Zealand. Her captain, Commander Edward Hay, was killed on 30 April 1864 during the storming of Gate P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manukau Harbour
The Manukau Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in New Zealand by area. It is located to the southwest of the Auckland isthmus, and opens out into the Tasman Sea. Geography The harbour mouth is between the northern head ("Burnett Head" / "Ohaka Head") located at the southern end of the Waitākere Ranges and South Head at the end of the Āwhitu Peninsula reaching up from close to the mouth of the Waikato River. The mouth is only 1800 metres wide, but after a nine kilometre channel it opens up into a roughly square basin 20 kilometres in width. The harbour has a water surface area of 394 square kilometres. There is a tidal variation of up to 4 metres, a very substantial change, especially since the harbour, being silted up with almost 10 million years of sedimentation, is rather shallow itself.Manukau Ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Miranda (1851)
HMS ''Miranda'' was a 14-gun (15-gun from 1856) wooden screw sloop of the Royal Navy. As part of the 1847 Program, she was designed by John Fincham, Master Shipwright of Portsmouth and is considered an improved Rattler with the design approved on 3 November 1847. She was ordered on the 25th of April 1847 with the name ''Grinder'' from Royal Dockyard, Sheerness. On the 3rd of November 1847 she was reordered as the ''Miranda'' from Sheerness Dockyard. Launched in 1851, she was completed to see action in the Russian War of 1854 - 55. In 1854 she was in the White Sea and participated in the bombardment of the Port of Kola. She then participated in the Sea of Azov during 1855. Two of her crew were awarded the Victoria Cross for their bravery. Towards the end of her career she transported troops during the New Zealand war. She was reclassified as a corvette by 1862, She was sold for breaking in December 1869. Grinder was the second named vessel since it was introduced for a tender of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sloop-of-war
In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' encompassed all the unrated combat vessels, including the very small gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fireships were classed as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the sloop role when not carrying out their specialised functions. In World War I and World War II, the Royal Navy reused the term "sloop" for specialised convoy-defence vessels, including the of World War I and the highly successful of World War II, with anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capability. They performed similar duties to the American destroyer escort class ships, and also performed similar duties to the smaller corvettes of the Royal Navy. Rigging A sloop-of-war was quite different from a civilian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England. Description Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of about 3 nautical miles (6 km). Its northern limit is Plymouth Hoe giving a north–south distance of nearly 3 nautical miles (6 km). The Sound has three water entrances. The marine entrance is from the English Channel to the south, with a deep-water channel to the west of the Plymouth Breakwater. There are two freshwater inlets: one, from the northwest, is from the River Tamar via the Hamoaze and Devonport Dockyard, the largest naval dockyard in western Europe. The other, at northeast, is from the River Plym disgorging into its narrow estuary, Cattewater harbour between Mount Batten and the Royal Citadel. In the centre of the Sound, midway between Bovisand Bay and Cawsand Bay, is Plymouth Breakwater, which creates a harbour prot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order Of The Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval and early-modern Europe, bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as "Knights of the Bath". George I "erected the Knights of the Bath into a regular Order (honour), Military Order". He did not (as is commonly believed) revive the Order of the Bath, since it had never previously existed as an Order, in the sense of a body of knights who were governed by a set of Statute, statutes and whose numbers were replenished when vacancies occurred. The Order consists of the Sovereign (currently Charles III, King Charles III), the :Great Masters of the Order of the Bath, Great Master (currently vacant) and three Classes of members: *Knight Grand Cross (:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Wars
The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. They were previously commonly referred to as the Land Wars or the Māori Wars, while Māori language names for the conflicts included ("the great New Zealand wars") and ("the white man's anger"). Historian James Belich popularised the name "New Zealand Wars" in the 1980s, although according to Vincent O'Malley, the term was first used by historian James Cowan in the 1920s. Though the wars were initially localised conflicts triggered by tensions over disputed land purchases, they escalated dramatically from 1860 as the government became convinced it was facing united Māori resistance to further land sales and a refusal to acknowledge Crown sovereignty. The colonial government summoned thousands of British troops to mount major campaigns to overpower the Kīngitanga (Māori King) movement and also con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Farquharson Burnett
Commodore William Farquharson Burnett, (1815 – 7 February 1863) was a senior officer in the Royal Navy. Naval career Burnett was appointed a lieutenant in the Royal Navy in 1838. Promoted to captain in 1854, he commanded ''Tortoise'' at Ascension. He served as Governor of Ascension from 1858 until 1861. He was then the Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station, between 21 July 1862 until 7 February 1863.Bastock, p. 25. He drowned when HMS ''Orpheus'' was wrecked and sank off the west coast of Auckland, New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ..., on 7 February 1863. References *Bastock, John (1988), ''Ships on the Australia Station'', Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. See also * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burnett, William ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commodore (rank)
Commodore is a senior naval rank used in many navies which is equivalent to brigadier and air commodore. It is superior to a navy captain, but below a rear admiral. It is either regarded as the most junior of the flag officers rank or may not hold the jurisdiction of a flag officer at all depending on the officer's appointment. Non-English-speaking nations commonly use the rank of flotilla admiral, counter admiral, or senior captain as an equivalent, although counter admiral may also correspond to ''rear admiral lower half'' abbreviated as RDML. Traditionally, "commodore" is the title for any officer assigned to command more than one ship, even temporarily, much as "captain" is the traditional title for the commanding officer of a single ship even if the officer's official title in the service is a lower rank. As an official rank, a commodore typically commands a flotilla or squadron of ships as part of a larger task force or naval fleet commanded by an admiral. A commodo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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