HMS Rattlesnake (1822)
.jpg) Rattlesnake, painted by Sir Oswald Walters Brierly, 1853 |
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| Career (United Kingdom) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Rattlesnake |
| Ordered: | 30 April 1818 |
| Builder: | Chatham Dockyard |
| Laid down: | August 1819 |
| Launched: | 26 March 1822 |
| Commissioned: | 8 May 1824[1] |
| Reclassified: | Troopship 1839 Survey vessel in 1845 |
| Fate: | Broken up at Chatham in January 1860 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Atholl-class 28-gun sixth-rate corvette |
| Tons burthen: | 499 91/94 bm |
| Length: | 113 ft 8 in (34.6 m) (gundeck) 94 ft 8 3⁄4 in (28.9 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 31 ft 6 in (9.6 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 8 ft 9 in (2.67 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement: | 175 |
| Armament: |
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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.
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[edit] Construction
Launched at Chatham Dockyard on 26 March 1822, Rattlesnake was 114 feet (34.7 m) long and 32 feet (9.7 m) abeam. She carried twenty 32-pounder carronades, six 18-pounder carronades and two 9-pounder long guns.[1]
[edit] Australia and New Guinea
Captain on the voyage to northern Australia and New Guinea was Owen Stanley. Also aboard were John Thomson as Surgeon, Thomas Henry Huxley as Assistant Surgeon ("surgeon's mate", but in practice marine naturalist), John MacGillivray as botanist and Oswald Brierly as artist.
Rattlesnake was the ship that rescued Barbara Crawford Thompson, who had been shipwrecked on Prince of Wales Island, North Queensland, aged 13 years [verified born in 1831 died 1916] in November 1844 and spent the next five years living with the local Kaurareg people, despite their reputation for being cannibals.[2][3] The true and certified version of her life story can be found in the book "Wildflower" The Barbara Crawford Thompson Story [Google title] by Queensland historian Raymond J Warren
[edit] Survey ship
She was converted to a survey ship in 1845.[1]
[edit] Fate
She was broken up at Chatham in January 1860.[1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Winfield (2004) p.113
- ^ On The Box: Ray Mears Goes Walkabout
- ^ DigiGuide library
- Winfield, Rif; Lyon, David (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.
[edit] Further reading
- MacGillivray, John (1852), Narrative of the Voyage of HMS Rattlesnake, London: Boone
- Goodman, Jordan (2006), The Rattlesnake: A Voyage of Discovery to the Coral Sea, London: Faber & Faber, ISBN 9780571210787
- Goodman, Jordan (2005), "Losing it in New Guinea: the voyage of HMS Rattlesnake", Endeavour (Elsevier) 29 (2): 60–65, doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2005.04.005, PMID 15935857
[edit] External links
- Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Volume 1 at Project Gutenberg
- Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Volume 2 at Project Gutenberg
- Images from the voyage of the Rattlesnake at the State Library of New South Wales
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