![]() Bow of the North Star. Illustrated London News 1849 | |
History | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Name | North Star |
Ordered | 30 April 1818 |
Builder | Woolwich Dockyard |
Laid down | April 1820 |
Launched | 7 February 1824 |
Completed | 26 May 1826 |
Fate | Broken up at Chatham Dockyard in 1860 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | 28-gun Atholl-class sixth-rate post ship |
Tons burthen | 501 bm |
Length |
|
Beam | 31 ft 6 in (9.60 m) |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Complement | 175 |
Armament |
|
HMS North Star was a 28-gun Atholl-class sixth-rate post ship built to an 1817 design by the Surveyors of the Navy. She was launched in 1824. North Star Bay, a bay in Greenland, was named in honour of this ship.
From 1826 to 1828 under Captain Arabin, North Star was stationed in the West Africa Squadron, whose task was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. In late 1828 she sailed to England, via the West Indies. From 1829 to 1832 she was stationed in Portsmouth; then from 1832 to 1833 she became part of the North America and West Indies Station before being paid off. In 1834 she was commissioned for service on the Pacific Station then known as the South American Station. She was in the Pacific off the coast of South and Central America until 1836, when she returned to Portsmouth.
In September 1841 Captain Sir James Everard Home was appointed to North Star. She was then commissioned for service in the East Indies and China Station and in November of that year she conveyed money for the commissariat in China. During the period 1841-42 she served with Sir William Parker's ships in the First Anglo-Chinese War (1839–42), known popularly as the First Opium War. [1]
At the end of the First Anglo-Chinese War North Star was sent to Calcutta, then Sydney, Australia, and when at Sydney, the Flagstaff War began in New Zealand.
On 23 March 1845 North Star arrived in New Zealand, under the command of Sir Everard Home, with the officers and men of the 58th Regt. [3] North Star operated in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand during the Flagstaff War between 11 March 1845 and 11 January 1846. On 29 April 1845 cannon fire from North Star was directed at the pā of Pōmare II on the coast in the Bay of Islands. [4] A pā is a fortified village. Because of the almost constant intertribal warfare, the art of defensive fortifications had reached a very high level among the Māori. The colonial forces were able to occupy Pōmare's pā without a fight, although up until that time Pōmare had been considered neutral and was not a supporter of the rebellion led by Hōne Heke. [4]
On 8 May 1845 a small naval brigade from both North Star and HMS Hazard supported the 58th Regt. and other colonial forces at the Battle of Puketutu. The colonial forces were repulsed by Māori warriors with serious losses. From 27 December 1845 to 11 January 1846 officers, seamen and Royal Marines from North Star assisted the army at the siege of Ruapekapeka Pā. Officers present at the battle were Commander Hay and Lieutenant Egerton. Mr Murray, a midshipman, was killed during the battle. [5]
Following the end of the Flagstaff War North Star returned to England. On 19 December 1846 she arrived in Portsmouth sailing via the Cape of Good Hope.
Under Commander James Saunders North Star sailed to the Arctic in 1849 in the spring on a venture to search for and resupply Captain Sir James Clark Ross' expedition, who in turn had sailed in 1848 trying to locate the whereabouts of Sir John Franklin's expedition. [6]
Failing to find Franklin or Ross, Saunders's mission aboard North Star consisted in depositing stores along several named areas of the Canadian Arctic coast and returning to England before the onset of winter. However, progress being made difficult by ice in Melville Bay James Saunders's ship became trapped by ice off the coast of northwest Greenland in North Star Bay, a protected bay off Wolstenholme Fjord, being the first Royal Navy ship to winter so far north. While wintering in the frozen bay in 1849–50 Saunders named numerous landmarks in that area. [7] In August 1850 North Star broke free of the ice and crossed Baffin Bay to Lancaster Sound, eventually reaching Whaler Point. Since westward progress became difficult on account of the ice Saunders returned to Baffin Bay and off Admiralty Inlet, he met William Penny's expedition and was informed that Ross had returned home. After leaving the remaining stores at Navy Board Inlet, North Star sailed back to England. She was immediately attached to Edward Belcher's 1852 Franklin search expedition and returned to the arctic under William Pullen. Left at Beechey Island, she served as depot ship and when the remainder of the expedition was frozen in and abandoned, she and HMS Phoenix brought off the crews of Belcher's four other ships as well as that of HMS Investigator, returning again to England in 1854. In 1860 she was broken up at the Chatham Dockyard.
The Flagstaff War, also known as Heke's War, Hōne Heke's Rebellion and the Northern War, was fought between 11 March 1845 and 11 January 1846 in and around the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. The conflict is best remembered for the actions of Hōne Heke who challenged the authority of the British by cutting down the flagstaff on Flagstaff Hill at Kororāreka. The flagstaff had been a gift from Hōne Heke to James Busby, the first British Resident. The Northern War involved many major actions, including the Battle of Kororāreka on 11 March 1845, the Battle of Puketutu on 8 May 1845, the Battle of Ōhaeawai on 23 June 1845 and the siege of Ruapekapeka Pā from 27 December 1845 to 11 January 1846.
HMS Rattlesnake was an Atholl-class 28-gun sixth-rate corvette of the Royal Navy launched in 1822. She made a historic voyage of discovery to the Cape York and Torres Strait areas of northern Australia.
HMS Terror was a specialised warship and a newly developed bomb vessel constructed for the Royal Navy in 1813. She participated in several battles of the War of 1812, including the Battle of Baltimore with the bombardment of Fort McHenry. She was converted into a polar exploration ship two decades later, and participated in George Back's Arctic expedition of 1836–1837, the successful Ross expedition to the Antarctic of 1839 to 1843, and Sir John Franklin's ill-fated attempt to force the Northwest Passage in 1845, during which she was lost with all hands along with HMS Erebus.
HMS Griper was a Bold-class gun-brig of the British Royal Navy, built in 1813 by Mark Williams and John Davidson at Hythe. She participated in the 1819 expedition to the Arctic led by William Parry, made a voyage to Greenland and Norway in 1823, and took part in Parry's third expedition in 1824 as a support ship. Her crew in 1819, 1823, or 1824, qualified for the "Arctic Medal", which the Admiralty issued in 1857. She was eventually broken up in 1868.
HMS Rattler was a 9-gun steam screw sloop of the Royal Navy, and one of the first British warships to be completed with screw propulsion. She was originally ordered as a paddle wheel 4-gun steam vessel from Sheerness Dockyard on 12 March 1841. She was reordered on 24 February 1842 as a propeller type 9-gun sloop from HM Royal Dockyard, Sheerness, as a new vessel. William Symonds had redesigned the ship as a screw propeller driven vessel.
Lieutenant Colonel William Hulme was an officer of the 96th Regiment of Foot, British Army.
North Star Bay, also known as Thule Harbor and Wolstenholme Bay, is a bay off the mouth of Wolstenholme Fjord, Greenland.
HMS Ardent was a wooden Alecto-class paddle sloop, and the fourth ship of the Royal Navy to use the name. She was launched on 12 February 1841 at Chatham and spent much of her career on the West Coast of Africa engaged in anti-slavery operations. One of the ship's company, Gunner John Robarts, was awarded the Victoria Cross for the destruction of Russian food stores in the Crimean War. She was scrapped in 1865.
HMS Castor, launched and commissioned in 1832, was a 36-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy and the third naval ship to bear the name.
The Cruizer class was a class of six 17-gun wooden screw sloops built for the Royal Navy between 1852 and 1856.
HMS Hazard was an 18-gun Favorite-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She was one of four Favorite-class ship sloops, which were a ship-rigged and lengthened version of the 1796 Cruizer-class brig-sloop. All four ships of the class were ordered on 10 June 1823. She was launched in 1837 from Portsmouth Dockyard.
HMS Niger was originally slated to be built as a Sampson designed sloop; however, she was ordered as a First-Class sloop with screw propulsion on 20 February 1845 to be built at Woolwich Dockyard, along the design developed by Oliver Lang and with a hull like the Basilisk designed paddle sloops. Her armament and engine were to be like the Encounter Design building at Pembroke. A second vessel (Florentia) was ordered on 26 March 1846 but after her keel was laid at Pembroke Dockyard, her construction was suspended on 6 October 1846 then cancelled three years later, on 22 May 1849. Niger She conducted important propulsion trials, finally proving the superiority of screw propulsion and served in West Africa, the Crimea, China, the East Indies and Australia. She took part in the New Zealand wars in 1860 and was sold for breaking in 1869.
HMS Eclipse was a four-gun Cormorant-class first-class gunvessel launched in 1860 from the shipyard of J. Scott Russell & Co., Millwall. She served on the Australia Station, took part in the Second Taranaki War, including contributing men to a naval brigade which attacked the Maori stronghold at Gate Pā. The entire class were never satisfactory as gunvessels, partly due to their excessive draught, and Eclipse was broken up at Sheerness in 1867, only seven years after her launch.
HMS Phoenix was a 6-gun steam paddle vessel of the Royal Navy, built in a dry dock at Chatham in 1832. She was reclassified as a second-class paddle sloop before being rebuilt as a 10-gun screw sloop in 1844–45. She was fitted as an Arctic storeship in 1851 and sold for breaking in 1864.
HMS Herald was an Atholl-class 28-gun sixth-rate corvette of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1822 as HMS Termagant, commissioned in 1824 as HMS Herald and converted to a survey ship in 1845. After serving as a chapel ship from 1861, she was sold for breaking in 1862.
Captain Sir James Everard Home, 2nd Baronet,, born at Well Manor, Hampshire, England, was an eminent nineteenth century Royal Navy officer.
HMS Calliope was a 28-gun sixth rate launched in October 1837 and broken up in November 1883.
Pōmare II, originally named Whiria, was a Māori rangatira (chief) of the Ngāpuhi iwi (tribe) in New Zealand and the leader of the Ngāti Manu hapū (subtribe) of the Ngāpuhi. He was the nephew of Pōmare I, his mother Haki being the elder sister of Pōmare I. When he succeeded his uncle as leader of the Ngāti Manu he took his uncle's names, Whētoi and Pōmare. He is referred to as Pōmare II, so as to distinguish him from his uncle.
Sir Edward Hughes was launched in 1784 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She spent four years as a country ship, i.e., sailing in the East Indies but without going to Britain. Then between 1788 and 1803 she made eight voyages to India and China for the EIC. In 1804 the EIC sold Sir Edward Hughes to the British Royal Navy, which commissioned her as a 38-gun frigate. The Navy renamed her Tortoise in 1807 and converted her to a storeship in 1808. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars she became variously a coal depot, a hulk, and then a convict transport. In 1844 she became a receiving ship at Ascension Island. She was lost there in 1859, or broken up there in 1860, or 1863.
HMS Inflexible was a Bulldog-class sloop designed by Sir William Symonds, Surveyor of the Navy. Originally she was ordered as a Driver-class sloop, however, under Admiralty Order of 26 December 1843 she was directed to be built to a new specification. After commissioning she sailed for the East Indies and participated in the last year of the New Zealand War of 1845 to 1847. She then was in the Black Sea for the Crimean War followed by the Second Opium War with China. She was sold for breaking in July 1864.