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HMS Orpheus Shipwreck (7 February 1863) Her approach to Manukau Harbour on 7 February ran near Whatipu beach, through a series of dangerous sand bars.

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

Read more here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Orpheus_(1860)

The Flying Squadron was a Royal Navy squadron formed at least three times. Its first formation existed from June 1869-November 1870

Showing Flying Squadron at Wellington… 1870 Showing the Flying Squadron under Rear-Admiral Hornby at Wellington and the ships Rosario, Barossa, Endymion, Scylla, Liverpool (flag ship), Phoebe and Liffey.
Depicted placeWellington
Date25 January 1870

First formation, 1869-70[edit]

The British Flying Squadron of 1869 leaving False Bay, Cape of Good Hope, showing Liverpool (1860), Rattlesnake (1861), Scylla (1856), Endymion (1865), Bristol (1861), Barrosa (1860), and Seringapatam (1819). Illustrated London News 1869

The first Flying Squadron was established in 1869. It was made up, at various times, of ten wooden ships with auxiliary steam power. The squadron sailed from Plymouth on 19 June 1869. It called at Madeira, South America, South Africa, Melbourne, Sydney, and Hobart in Australia, Auckland, Wellington, and Lyttleton in New Zealand, Japan, Canada Hawaii, and Bahia in Brazil, before returning to England on 15 November 1870.[2][3]

The Flying Squadron of 1869 under Rear-Admiral Hornby at Wellington, with ships Rosario, Barossa, Endymion, Scylla, Liverpool, Phoebe and Liffey.

Rear-Admiral Geoffrey Hornby commanded the squadron from 19 June 1869 – 15 November 1870,[4] flying his flag from HMS Liverpool (1860).[3] Other ships of the squadron included HMS Liffey (1856), HMS Bristol (left at Bahia), HMS Endymion (1865), HMS Scylla (left at Esquimalt), HMS Barrosa (1860), HMS Phoebe, HMS Pearl, and HMS Charybdis. Between 1866 and 1870, HMS Satellite (1855) served in the Pacific with the Commander-in-Chief, China. She joined the Flying Squadron at Valparaiso in Chile, sailing home the rest of the way with them.

  • Plymouth Sound
    (June, 1869)
  • Hobart, Tasmania
    (January, 1870)
  • Auckland, New Zealand
    (February, 1870)
  • Esquimalt Bay, Canada,
    (May, 1870)
  • Honolulu, Hawaii
    (June, 1870)
  • Rounding Cape Horn
    (September 13, 1870)

NZGSS Hinemoa was a 542-ton New Zealand Government Service Steamer designed specifically for lighthouse support and servicing, and also for patrolling New Zealand’s coastline and carrying out castaway checks and searching for missing ships. It operated in New Zealand’s territorial waters from 1876 to 1944.

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CGS Hinemoa at Port Chalmers

It was instrumental in supplying many of the government castaway depots on the remote subantarctic islands, and rescuing a number of shipwreck victims, including those from the wreck of the Dundonald, the Anjou and the Spirit of the Dawn.

New Zealand Government ship `Hinemoa’ 1894.

The ‘Hinemoa’ in drydock – 1880s
This Hinemoa (1876-1944) was a Government Steam ship of 542 tons, built by Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co, Greenock in 1876, for the NZ Government’s lighthouse service and Islands patrol.
She originally had three masts, but the mainmast was removed c1880-1889.
In Dec 1900 – Jan 1901, she was used for a cruise to NZ’s sub-Antarctic islands by the Governor-General, Lord Ranfurly.
Used as a Government survey ship for the Sub-Antarctic Scientific Expedition to Campbell Island and the Auckland Islands in 1907 during which the crew rescued the survivors of the Dundonald.
She was sold to a Southland company in 1925 for pleasure cruises to Milford Sound.
Purchased in 1942 by RNZN and converted into a sullage (waste oil) barge for use by American ships under repair at Wellington.
Dismantled in 1944 and sunk in Pegasus Bay, 60 miles NEof Lyttelton.

History

Captain John Fairchild used the steamer to survey the Bounty Islands and Antipodes Islands in 1886,[1] and the Herekino Harbour and the Whangape Harbour entrance in 1889.[2] In 1891, while under the command of Captain Fairchild, the Hinemoa searched New Zealand’s subantarctic and outlying islands for traces of the missing ships Kakanui and Assaye. While no trace was found of the former, the Assaye was suspected foundered off The Snares.[3]

Remains of the GSS Stella, sister ship of NZGSS Hinemoa, in Taiari / Chalky Inlet

The Hinemoa provided assistance to the Sub-Antarctic Islands scientific expedition of 1907, a substantial scientific expedition sponsored by the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, where important observations on the natural history of the islands were made. They were published as a two-volume work in 1909, edited by professor Charles Chilton.[4]

Captain John Bollons was a notable master of the steamer from 1898; Bollons Island in the Antipodes Islands is named after him. Another to serve aboard the Hinemoa was William Edward Sanders, who won a Victoria Cross during World War I.[5]

It had a sister ship, the GSS Stella, which carried out similar duties over the same time period.[6] After its decommissioning in 1944, it was rejected for scrapping due to an oversupply at the time.[7]

Painting by Frank Barnes of the New Zealand Government Service Steamer (NZGSS) ‘Hinemoa’ off the Kaikoura Mountains (Oil painting, particle board, Dimensions Frame 582 (Height) x 889 (Length) x 40 (Width/Depth) mm; Sight 440 (Height) x 746 (Length) mm; 1911).

A 1919 photo album from the ship was found in a Danish antique shop and brought to Canterbury Museum in 2023. It is unknown how or when the album came to Denmark.

HMS New Zealand was one of three Indefatigable-class battlecruisers built for the defence of the British Empire. Launched in 1911, the ship was funded by the government of New Zealand as a gift to Britain, and she was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1912. She had been intended for the China Station, but was released by the New Zealand government at the request of the Admiralty for service in British waters.

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HMS New Zealand
HMS New Zealand – A Turret
HMS New Zealand

HMS New Zealand, Wellington

HMS NEW ZEALAND – mascot Pelorus Jack

HMS New Zealand in Wellington

HMS New Zealand – LYTTLETON

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HMS New Zealand


During 1913, New Zealand was sent on a ten-month tour of the British Dominions, with an emphasis on a visit to her namesake nation. She was back in British waters at the start of World War I, and operated as part of the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet, in opposition to the German High Seas Fleet. During the war, the battlecruiser participated in all three of the major North Sea battles—Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank, and Jutland—and was involved in the response to the inconclusive Raid on Scarborough, and the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. New Zealand contributed to the destruction of two cruisers during her wartime service and was hit by enemy fire only once, sustaining no casualties; her status as a “lucky ship” was attributed by the crew to a Māori piupiu (warrior’s skirt) and hei-tiki (pendant) worn by the captain during battle.
After the war, New Zealand was sent on a second world tour, this time to allow Admiral John Jellicoe to review the naval defences of the Dominions. In 1920, the battlecruiser was placed in reserve. She was broken up for scrap in 1922 in order to meet Britain’s tonnage limit in the disarmament provisions of the Washington Naval Treaty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_New_Zealand_(1911)