HMQS Gayundah in 1886 |
|
| Career (Australia) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Gayundah |
| Namesake: | Aboriginal word for "thunder" |
| Builder: | Sir W.G. Armstrong, Mitchell & Co, Newcastle-on-Tyne |
| Cost: | GB£35,000 |
| Launched: | 13 May 1884 |
| Commissioned: | 28 October 1884 |
| Decommissioned: | 1921 |
| Fate: | Breakwater since 1958 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Armstrong type B1 flat-iron gunboat |
| Displacement: | 360 tons |
| Length: | 120 ft (37 m) |
| Beam: | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
| Draught: | 9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) |
| Installed power: | 400 ihp (298 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 2 shaft horizontal direct action compound steam engines |
| Speed: | 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph) |
| Range: | 700 to 800 mi (1,100 to 1,300 km) |
| Endurance: | 75 tons of coal |
| Armament: |
as built: |
HMQS Gayundah was a flat-iron gunboat operated by the Queensland Maritime Defence Force and later the Royal Australian Navy (as HMAS Gayundah). She entered service in 1884 and was decommissioned and sold in 1921. She then served as sand and gravel barge for Brisbane Gravel Pty Ltd until 1950, when she was scrapped. In 1958, Gayundah was run aground at Woody Point at Redcliffe, to serve as a breakwater structure.[1]
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Gayundah was a sister ship of HMQS Paluma. This class was built to a type B1 flat-iron gunboat design from builders Sir W.G. Armstrong, Mitchell & Co. The very similar HMVS Albert was also built in 1884 and served with the colony of Victoria.
HMQS Gayundah was launched at Newcastle upon Tyne on 13 May 1884 and commissioned in the United Kingdom during October. The ship sailed for Australia in November 1984 under the command of Captain Henry Townley Wright, arriving in Brisbane on 28 March 1885.
During the first years of the gunboat's operation, Captain Wright (who was also the head of the Queensland Maritime Defence Force) found that his expenses exceeded his salary, and turned to appropriating government stores and alcohol for his own use.[2] This, along with his conduct and attitude towards running the colony's navy prompted the Queensland government to seek his removal in late 1887, although plans to immediately dismiss him were cancelled and Wright was to be kept on until his appointment concluded at the end of 1888, with the proviso that he had not authority to acquire stores for Gayundah.[2] In September 1888, Wright sought leave of absence until the end of the year and the payment of remaining salary as a lump sum: the former was agreed to, but Wright's pay would continue to occur monthly, and he was ordered to turn Gayundah over to his second in command, Lieutenant F. P. Taylor.[3] In response, Wright threatened to report what he saw as an insult to his position to the Admiralty, and had the gunboat loaded with coal and stores.[3] On 24 October, the Under Colonial Secretary instructed Taylor to take command of the ship.[3] Wright interpreted Taylor's actions as a mutiny, had him arrested, wrote several letters of protest to his superiors and others, ordered Gayundah's aft 6-inch gun to be aimed at the Queensland Parliament, and threatened to take the gunboat to sea if further challenges to his authority were made.[4] The colonial government dismissed him from his roles within the Maritime Defence Force, and a party of Queensland police boarded the ship with the intention to remove Wright by force if necessary.[5] After failing to order them off his ship, Wright composed another letter of protest, released Taylor, and allowed himself to be escorted ashore by the police.[5]
Over the next few years, Gayundah served as a training ship, and conducted the first ship to shore radio transmissions in Australia. However, with the depression of the 1890s, Gayundah was assigned to reserve duties in 1892, being reactivated yearly for Easter training.[1]
Following the Federation of Australia, Gayundah and sister ship HMQS Paluma joined the Commonwealth Naval Forces in 1901.[1] On 9 April 1903, the Gayundah transmitted the first wireless message received from a ship at sea to an Australian wireless station. The historic message sent to the receiving station in Brisbane read: "Gun drill continued this afternoon and was fairly successful - blowing squally and raining - prize firing tomorrow. Marconi insulators were interfered with by rain but easily rectified and communication since has been good. Good night." The ship's aerial was a tall bamboo pole lashed to the mast.[6]
In March 1911, the Commonwealth Naval Forces became the Royal Australian Navy, with Gayundah redesignated HMAS (His Majesty's Australian Ship).[1] From 22 April to 25 August 1911, at the instigation of the Departments of External Affairs and Trade & Customs, Gayundah sailed under the command of Commander G.A.H. Curtis from Brisbane to Broome, Western Australia to enforce Australia's territorial boundary and fishing zone along the north-west coast of the continent. At Scott Reef, on 25 May, Gayundah boarded and detained two Dutch schooners with illegal catches of trepang (sea cucumber) and trochus shell (trochus niloticus), escorted them into Broome on 29 May, then remained at Broome until mid-July so the officers could appear as witnesses in the resulting court case against the masters of the schooners. For this cruise, the 6-inch bow gun was removed to provide greater bunkering for coal and thereby increase the ship's range.[1]
Gayundah was extensively refitted in early 1914. With the outbreak of World War I, Gayundah was assigned to coastal patrols of Moreton Bay and the east coast of Australia.[1]
In 1921, she was sold to Brisbane Gravel Pty Ltd and returned to Queensland, where she was employed as a sand and gravel barge on the Brisbane River. She sank at her moorings at Melton Reach in October 1930 but was soon raised and back at work. Early in 1958 she was towed to Bulimba Wharf in Brisbane and stripped with the hull then sold to the Redcliffe Town Council.[1]
On 2 June 1958, after seventy-four years afloat, Gayundah was beached as a breakwater off the Woody Point cliffs on the Redcliffe Peninsula just north of Brisbane. Her remains are still visible today.[1]