HMS Buffalo (1813)


1936 model of the Buffalo
Career (UK)
Name: HMS Buffalo
Builder: James Bonner & James Horsburgh, Calcutta
Launched: 4 January 1813 as the Hindostan
Acquired: 22 October 1813 by Royal Navy
Refit: 4 January 1814, as a storeship
19 April 1833, as a convict ship
1836, as an emigrant ship
Fate: Wrecked in Mercury Bay, 28 July 1840.
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: sixth-rate storeship
Tons burthen: 589 (bm)[2]
Length: 120 ft (37 m) (o/a)
98 ft 8 in (30.1 m) (keel)
Beam: 33 ft 10 in (10.31 m)
Depth of hold: 15 ft 8 in (4.78 m)
Propulsion: Sail
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement:

Original: 3 officers and 55 crew

Later: 9 officers and 88 crew
Armament:

As built: [3] 16 × 24-pounder carronades + 2 × 9-pounder guns

After 1833 convict ship refit: [3] 6 × 18-pounder carronades + 2 × 6-pounder long guns
Notes: Water buffalo figurehead
For other ships of the same name, see HMS Buffalo.

HMS Buffalo was a storeship of the Royal Navy, originally built in India as the merchant vessel Hindostan. She later served as a convict ship and as transport for immigrants to Australia before being wrecked in 1840.

Contents

Launch and purchase

The Hindostan was built of teak by James Bonner and James Horsburgh, of Firth, in 1813 at Calcutta.[1][2] Upon the ship's launch, the Calcutta Gazette reported her as a merchantman built to carry grain rice. The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty purchased her and the similar Servern, a 550 tons burthen (bm) ship (renamed HMS Camel) for the Royal Navy. Horsburgh part-financed the building of both Severn and Hindostan in the partnership of Horsburgh & Colman.

On 13 October 1813, after a six month maiden voyage, the Hindostan arrived in Blackwall, London. Nine days later a £18,000 purchasing deal was brokered with David Webster (representing the builders).[1] The Navy Board renamed the ship HMS Buffalo, designated her a sixth rate, and employed her as a storeship.

Royal Navy service

Buffalo was commissioned in November 1813 under Mr. Richard Anderson, Master,[4] and became a ship of many uses and refits. Anderson was still her master between between 1814 and 1815 when she was stationed at the Army Depot at Bermuda.[5] Then in January 1816 Mr. W. Hudson became master.

Buffalo was at Deptford in 1822, 1827, and 1831.[5] She was fitted as a timber carrier to carry spars from New Zealand in 1831.[4] However, she apparently was in the Quarantine Service at Stangate in 1832.[5]

Then in January 1833 she was fitted as a convict ship,[4] and F.W.R. Sadler took command.[5] Buffalo sailed to Australia in May 1833 carrying 180 female convicts. She was an important ship in the maritime history of South Australia, serving at times as a quarantine, transport or colonisation ship, while also aiding the British expansion into New Zealand, New South Wales, Tasmania and Upper Canada.

Buffalo was paid-off and recommissioned in January 1835. Then James Wood took command in July 1836. Buffalo sailed from Portsmouth on 23 July 1836, arriving in South Australian waters in December of that year, carrying 176 colonists, including Captain John Hindmarsh, who was to become the first Governor of the new colony of South Australia following the proclamation of that colony on 28 December 1836. As a tribute, a replica of the Buffalo is moored in the Patawalonga River at Glenelg, a suburb of Adelaide.

Only three deaths were ever recorded on the Buffalo,[6] a remarkable record considering the medical practices of that period and volumes of passengers she transported.

S. Hindmarsh may have been captain in 1837 but James Wood returned to command and would remain her captain until her loss. She was fitted as a timber carrier again in 1839.

Fate

She was wrecked on 28 July 1840 by a storm while anchored in Mercury Bay off Whitianga and loaded with Kauri spars. Buffalo parted from her cables during a gale. As her crew could not save her, Wood steered her to go ashore on the beach. All the crew except two were saved, but she herself was a total loss.[7]

Post-script

The wreck of HMS Buffalo is still visible today at Buffalo Bay off Whitianga. The wreck is only visible from the air at low tide and in clear water conditions.

The GPS co-ordinates for the location of the wreck are:

S 36 Deg 49' 36.20 E 175 Deg 42' 20.00'

References

Citations
  1. ^ a b c Sexton 1984, pp. 11–12
  2. ^ a b Stringer 1980, p. 6
  3. ^ a b Sexton 1984, p. 27
  4. ^ a b c Winfield (2008), p.398.
  5. ^ a b c d "NMM, vessel ID 381491". Warship Histories, vol v. National Maritime Museum. http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/pdf/Warship_Histories_Vessels_v.pdf. Retrieved 30 July 2011. 
  6. ^ Sexton 1984, p. 10
  7. ^ Hepper (1994), p.163.
Bibliography
  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. 
  • Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3. 
  • Sexton, Robert (1984), H.M.S. Buffalo: An Account of His Majesty's Ship Buffalo, Naval Storeship and Timber Carrier, Quarantine Ship, Transport, and Emigrant Ship Bringing the First Governor to South Australia, Magill: Australasian Maritime Historical Society, ISBN 0-9591317-0-1 
  • Stringer, Myra (1980), Family history of John William and Susanna Adams, Adelaide: M. Stringer, ISBN 0959436308 
  • Stringer, Myra (1986), Adams Family History 1774–1986, Adelaide: M. Stringer, ISBN 0959436316 
  • Winfield, Rif (2007), British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates, Seaforth, ISBN 1861762461 

External Links

Pioneers and Settlers - Bound for South Australia HMS Buffalo 1836

This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales License, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project