HMVS ''Victoria'' (Her Majesty's Victorian Ship; also referred to with the prefix HMCSS-Her Majesty's Colonial Steam Sloop) was a 580-ton combined steam/sail

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'' enc ...

built in England in the 1850s for the colony of Victoria, Australia. She was the second warship to be built for an Australian colonial navy, the first British-built ship given to a colony of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

, and the first Australian warship to be deployed overseas when she supported New Zealand colonists during the

First Taranaki War The First Taranaki War (also known as the North Taranaki War) was an armed conflict over land ownership and sovereignty that took place between Māori and the New Zealand government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand's North Island from M ...

Construction and acquisition

''Victoria'' was the first warship to be built in England for one of the British colonies. She was the second ship ordered for an Australian colonial navy, after the Australian-built gunboat ''Spitfire'' for the New South Wales colony. She was designed by the British naval architect Oliver Lang and launched in London on 30 June 1855 by Lady Constance Talbot. Commander

William Henry Norman William Henry Norman (1812–1869) was a sea captain in Australia. As commander of HMVS ''Victoria'', he engaged in the First Taranaki War in New Zealand and the search for explorers Burke and Wills. Early life William Henry Norman was born i ...

sailed ''Victoria'' from Plymouth to Hobsons Bay, arriving on 31 May 1856. The ship was initially equipped with three 32-pounder guns.

Operational history

''Victoria''s main duties were to protect the colony of Victoria, conduct hydrological surveys, recover passengers and crew from stricken ships, and serve as a lighthouse tender. During her career the sloop delivered the first trout eggs to the colony of Tasmania.

New Zealand Wars deployment, 1860

In 1860, the colonial government of Victoria decided to send the sloop to New Zealand, to support British colonists fighting in the

. On 19 April 1860, ''Victoria'' sailed to Hobart, embarked 134 troops from the

40th Regiment of Foot The 40th (the 2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1717 in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 82nd Regiment of Foot (Prince of Wales's Volunteers) ...

, and transported them to New Zealand. Prior to her departure, the colonial government passed an Act giving the ship legal status, but this law was overturned by Britain as an attempt to create a naval force independent of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. After delivering the soldiers to

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, ''Victoria'' performed shore bombardments and coastal patrols, while maintaining supply routes between Auckland and

New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. ...

. In July, she sailed to Sydney to transport General Thomas Pratt and his staff to New Zealand. ''Victoria'' was used to evacuate women and children from the town of

, following Maori attacks on the town's fortifications. In October, the ship underwent refit in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, and resumed duties by delivering British reinforcements to the combat areas. As the Victorian colonial government required the ship for urgent survey work, her return was requested at the end of the year, with ''Victoria'' arriving in Melbourne in March 1861. The New Zealand Wars deployment was the first time an Australian warship had been deployed to assist in a foreign war. The legal hazards of having a colonial warship operating outside her territorial limits was rectified by declaring that all Australian warships in international or foreign waters had to be commissioned into the

Search for Burke and Wills, 1861-2

When news reached

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in July 1861 that the explorers

Burke Burke is an Anglo-Norman Irish surname, deriving from the ancient Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (–1206) had the surname ''de Burgh'' which was gaelicised ...

and

Wills Wills may refer to: * Will (law) A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the pr ...

were missing somewhere between

Cooper Creek The Cooper Creek (formerly Cooper's Creek) is a river in the Australian states of Queensland and South Australia. It was the site of the death of the explorers Burke and Wills in 1861. It is sometimes known as the Barcoo River from one of its t ...

and the

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria (, ) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary is ...

, the

Royal Society of Victoria The Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) is the oldest scientific society in the state of Victoria in Australia. Foundation In 1854 two organisations formed with similar aims and membership, these being ''The Philosophical Society of Victoria'' (fou ...

decided to send a number of search parties to search for them. Commander William Henry Norman sailed from Hobson's Bay in ''Victoria'' on 4 August 1861 for Brisbane, where

William Landsborough William Landsborough (21 February 1825 – 16 March 1886) was an explorer of Australia and notably he was the first explorer to complete a North-to-South crossing of Australia. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Council. Early ...

and the Queensland Relief Expedition boarded. Accompanied by ''Firefly'' (188 tons, built 1843), ''Victoria'' departed

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

on 24 August 1861, arriving at the Albert River in the

at the end of September 1861. Also aboard was the botanist

Diedrich Henne Diedrich Henne (1834 – 21 January 1913) was a German-born botanist and plant collector. He emigrated to Australia and was employed as an assistant to the colonial botanist Ferdinand von Mueller at the Melbourne Herbarium. Henne was one of a n ...

. On 29 September, the party formed a land base on Sweers Island, and also visited

Bentinck Island Bentinck Island is a small island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca just off the southern tip of Vancouver Island in Metchosin, British Columbia, Canada near Race Rocks. It served as a leper colony beginning in 1924, when the federal government shut d ...

, both part of the

South Wellesley Islands The South Wellesley Islands is an island group and locality in the Gulf of Carpentaria within the Shire of Mornington, Queensland, Australia. The group is separate from the Wellesley Islands. Bentinck Island is the only one known to have ...

. After finding traces of the explorers, they returned to Melbourne on 31 March 1862.

Rescue of ''Netherby''

On 14 July 1866, ''Netherby'', carrying immigrants to Queensland, was wrecked off King Island in

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...

and all 413 passengers and 49 crew made it onshore safely, but there they were without shelter and with very limited provisions. The second officer, John Parry, led a party of crew and passengers to procure assistance from the lighthouse on the island, but there were insufficient supplies there for the number of survivors. Parry and three others took the 23-foot whaleboat at the lighthouse and, despite high winds and rough seas, managed to reach the

Australian mainland Mainland Australia is the main landmass of the Australian continent, excluding the Aru Islands, New Guinea, Tasmania, and other Australian offshore islands. The landmass also constitutes the mainland of the territory governed by the Commonwea ...

between Point Roadknight and

Barwon Heads Barwon Heads (previously known as Point Flinders) is a coastal township on the Bellarine Peninsula, near Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It is situated on the west bank of the mouth of the Barwon River below Lake Connewarre, while it is bounded t ...

, where they met a party of surveyors who immediately assisted them. Parry then took a horse and rode the 26 miles to

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

from where he raised the alarm by

telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

on 21 July. The Victorian Government immediately summoned Captain Norman to load supplies of food, blankets, tents and medicine onto ''Victoria'' and then proceed at full speed to King Island to rescue the survivors; Parry (who had travelled to Melbourne by train from Geelong) joined the ship to help locate the survivors. Another ship, ''Pharos'', had also independently sailed from Williamstown to render assistance to the survivors. On Monday 23 July, Norman located ''Netherby'' and, after discussions with ''Netherby's'' Captain Owens, took 230 passengers on board ''Victoria'' (as many as was possible), while off-loading supplies for those remaining on the island. Then ''Pharos'' arrived and took on board the remaining 60 survivors near the wreck site, the other 117 survivors having left the wreck site heading to the lighthouse. Having taken the rescued people to Melbourne, ''Victoria'' and ''Pharos'' returned to the lighthouse at King Island where they rescued the remaining survivors and replaced the lost whaleboat at the lighthouse. The survivors were taken by train and then by cab (a free service by the cabmen) to be accommodated in the Immigration Depot and Exhibition Building (not the present

Royal Exhibition Building The Royal Exhibition Building is a World Heritage-listed building in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, built in 1879–1880 as part of the international exhibition movement, which presented over 50 exhibitions between 1851 and 1915 around the glo ...

). Little of the luggage of the survivors was recovered and most were in a wretched state after their ordeal; the Victorian public donated clothing and funds to assist the survivors, many of whom decided to settle in Victoria rather than undertake another sea voyage to Queensland.

1862 onwards

In 1867, ''Victoria'' was present for the visit of

Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh Alfred (Alfred Ernest Albert; 6 August 184430 July 1900) was the sovereign duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1893 to 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from 1 ...

—the first member of the British Royal Family to visit Australia. By 1877, ''Victoria''s armament had been altered to include one 10-inch gun, two 13-pounders, and two 3-pounders.

Decommissioning and fate

The ship ended naval service in 1882. It was then purchased by the colony of Western Australia in 1894, but laid up a few years later in 1897, and then finally scrapped in Sydney 1920.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Victoria (1855) Ships of the Victorian Naval Forces Ships built on the River Thames 1855 ships