HMS BLANCHE

HMS BLANCHE.

N. S. W., on 12 May 1872 for the South Sea Islands under sealed orders ‘to visit as many islands, beche-de-mer fisheries and pearl stations, as possible, to obtain all reliable information with regard to British subjects reported murdered, the practice of skull hunting, treatment of islanders employed in fisheries and plantations, the practice of kidnapping, and to collect information off these and all other subjects of interest.1 Simpson arrived back at Sydney after a cruise of 189 days and a voyage of 13,000 miles

H.M.S-Blanche was a Sloop (1876 Corvette) it was of wooden hull and launched in 17 August,the length was 212 ft with steam propulsion she had a displacement of 1682 tons was of the Eclipse Class and was decommissioned in 1881

An English contemporary has the following précis (a concise summary of essential points) of the cruises of the Blanche, a vessel so long on this station that many colonists feel more than an ordinary interest in her. The Blanche, which vessel arrived at Sheerness on Tuesday from Fiji, Sydney and the Falklands Islands, left England in February, in 1868.Her Present officers and crew left England in the ill-fated Megaera in March of that year and after spending three months on St Paul's Island where the Megaera had been run ashore, they were taken off by the Peninsular and Oriental steamer Malasca,and conveyed to Sydney, except her captain, Captain Thrupp, and a few of the officers who were ordered to England for the court-martial on the loss of their vessel. The present Commodore of the Blanche, Captain Cortland Herbert Simpson, was appointed to take Captain Thrupp's place, and joined his ship in November, 1871, so that the Blanche has now been continuous in commission for nearly eight years, and is an example of the policy of double commissions inaugurated at the Admiralty some few years ago with the view to economy .Her present crew have been nearly five years from England, and it seldom falls to the lot of a ship’s company to have such a varied and eventful commission, the Blanche having probably during this commission visited more of the South Sea Island, than any other ship in the same time Some few years ago extracts may have been seen in the public papers from a report made by Captain Simpson of a cruise among the Marshall, Gilbert, Caroline, and Solomon Islands, where they visited many places never before seen by white men, the captain and some of the officers ascending up into those strange villages, built in the tops of enormous trees in the island Isabel, besides discovering some fine harbours, especially one in the island of New Britain (Solomon Group) The} also visited New Guinea, discovering and reporting that what had been hitherto supposed to be the south- east part of New Guinea was a mass of Islands, a discovery which has since been verified and extended by Captain Moresby, late of the Basilisk Besides these islands the Blanche has visited nearly every group of islands in the Pacific included in the Australian station, the new Hebrides, the Fiji, the Samoan or Navigator Islands, &.c In these last two croups the Blanche has played an important part, and, indeed, it may be said that the Fiji would certainly not now (if ever) have been a British colony had it not been for the presence of the Blanche at Ievuka in 1873 shortly before the arrival of the commissioners to inquire into the affairs of these islands when bloodshed and the inauguration of a war of races was alone prevented by the intervention of Captain Simpson

At the Samoan or Navigator Islands the Blanche was employed in the difficult task of settling all the disputes and difficulties between her Majesty’s Consul and other British subjects and the natives . Though at one time matters looked serious, the natives flatly refusing to discuss British claims or pay any fines, force was not found necessary, and Captain Simpson was fortunate in overcoming their resistance and arming at a decision which pleased all parties. The Blanche also saw a great deal of the Australian colonies visiting Queensland, New South Wales. Victoria and New Zealand, though both her officer and ship’s company would willingly have dispensed with a great deal of their island work to indulge somewhat more in the well-known hospitality of our country men This may be said more especially of New Zealand, where, in addition to the proverbial hospitality extended towards officers and men, one of the most delightful climates m the world and some of the grandest scenery were fully appreciated by all. The North Island, with its wonderful hot lakes and siliceous terraces, was visited by many and though the interior of the Middle or South Island was not so well travelled over the Blanche made a complete circuit of the island shooting the Trench Pass, which is considered rather a feat for a large vessel (the French Pass being a narrow passage, about thirty yards wide, between D’Urville Island and the mainland, through which the tide rushes and whirls with great velocity, its passage being simply shooting a rapid on a large scale) and visiting nearly all those wonderful sounds on its north and west coast. A description of these Sounds is impossible here but an idea of the solitary grandeur of one of them-Milford Sound, the smallest but most rugged-may be imagined from the fact that the ship enters from the ocean what is apparently nothing more than a crack 11 the stupendous cliffs of the coast, but which is really a winding chasm about 400 yards wide and about 10 miles long, with snow-capped mountains rising almost perpendicular on either side to a height of from 600U feet to 7000 feet, and with, in places over banking cliffs of 4000 feet, while with the sounding line no bottom is to be obtained at the extreme end of the Sound, where a mountain river has made a deposit that is sufficient to drop an anchor on, and the ship is then made fast to the trees which grow even on the sides of the mountains, which to the eye look quite perpendicular During this last cruise round the West Coast of New Zealand his Excellency Sir James Ferguson, Governor of New Zealand, was on board. The Blanche from the length of time she had been on the Australian station, came to be considered quite an institution in the colonies, and had the character of being in first rate order during both commissions. The Blanche left Fiji on June 28, arrived at Sydney on July 13, left on July 24, and passed to the island of New Zealand, rounded Cape Horn on September 7, anchored at Stanley, Falkland Islands, on September 1 left on September lo, mid anchored at Spithead on November 7 She had a splendid passage, making the run from Sydney in 107 days including a stoppage of five day s at the Falkland Islands She passed the Azores on the 31st of October, and made the passage thence in seven days, a distance of 1400 miles. She left Sydney on July24, and experienced light and adverse winds until New Zealand was cleared, after which steady fair winds prevailed, until the trades were reached, which were light and rather variable. Cape Horn was rounded in most beautiful weather Falkland Island was reached without a particle of ice I being Seen, 80 tons of coal was obtained, which was used at various times in calm weather the Blanche had been nearly eight years from England, during which time she has been employed on the Australian station, and for the last commission much of her time has been spent visiting the different groups of the South Sea Islands During the last four years, she has cruised over about 70,000 miles, and when cruising in the islands much of the work had to be done under steam she has been a most efficient steamer, and her machinery, we learn, is still in excellent working condition, although it has never been under any factory repair. The boilers, however, are completely worn out. The Blanche is one of the few ships that has made a successful second commission although she is supplied with copper tubes in I her surface condensers she was inspected on Tuesday afternoon by Vice Admiral the Hon. G F Hastings Commander in Chief at the Nore, an hour after she arrived, and we heard that Captain Simpson the first lieutenant and Other officers were highly I complimented on the extremely clean condition she was in, and also that the exercises and drills were exceedingly good. She is to be paid off on the 23rd, and placed in the4ith division of the Steam Reserve, and immediately got ready for service.

The Sydney Morning Herald Saturday 26/February 1876 (Trove.nln.Gov. Au)

Title

H.M.S. Blanche

1 drawing : pen and ink McCrae, George Gordon, 1833-1927

HMS Blanche was a 1760-ton, 6-gun Eclipse-class wooden screw sloop built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1860s by Chatham DockyardShe was sent to the Australia Station in January 1868, arriving in April 1868. She undertook a punitive action against Solomon Island natives in September 1869. During 1870, she joined in the search for the schooner Daphne, which was unsuccessful. Under the command of Captain Cortland Simpson, she undertook a survey of Rabaul Harbour in 1872. Blanche Bay is named after HMS Blanche. She finished service on the Australia Station in 1875. While sailing to England she was almost lost rounding Cape Horn in bad weather. After being refitted and rearmed, she was sent to the North America and West Indies Station, where she remained until 1881. She was placed in reserve and in 1886 was sold to Castle for £3600 and was broken up

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