"The Loss of HMS Orpheus 1863 – and the link with..." Topic

… the lady who would invent the modern life-jacket.

"The late 19th Century was a period of much expanded sea trade and with this came an enormous number of shipwrecks, not least due to lack of modern navigational aids. Service in Britain's Royal Navy was in general safer than in the merchant marine, mainly due to high levels of professionalism, training and discipline. Despite this, tragedies did occur (see links at end of this article for details of some of the most notable) and one, in 1863, remains today the largest maritime disaster in New Zealand waters. It was however to linked to a later development, a positive one, which is described in the latter part of this article.

HMS Orpheus, commissioned in 1861, was a Jason-class wooden corvette of 2365 tons and 225-foot length. She had both steam and sail propulsion and carried twenty 8-inch, muzzle-loading 68-pounders in broadside mountings and a single 7-inch breech loader on a pivot-mounting. Heavily armed for her size, she was ideal for "colonial operations" – service on remote stations where shore-bombardment might well be called for, as could be the need to land armed parties from her usual crew of 258. It was to support the British colonial forces in the latest of a long series of wars with New Zealand's Maori inhabitants that Orpheus sailed from Australia in late January 1863. She was headed for Aukland, to rendezvous with two other Royal Navy vessels already in the area. The city lies on an isthmus, between Manukau Harbour to the West and the Waitematâ Harbour to the east and north. The safer approach was from the east, but for a vessel coming from Australia this would necessitate a longer course, rounding the North Cape and sailing down the East Coast of the North Island…"
Full article here
link

Hope you enjoy!

Amicalemenet
Armand

Armand,

Thanks for the post. One of my daughters lives on Portage Road at the head of Manukau Harbour.

Rick

A votre service mon cher ami!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand