12
COROMANDEL LIFE
SUMMER 2014
HMS
BUFFALO
, 1813 - 1840
MERCURY BAY
GALE CLAIMS
HISTORIC SHIP
The display in the
Mercury Bay
Museum in
Whitianga also
includes relics
salvaged from the
wreck. The timber
was salvaged
by Maori and
settlers for
buildings, gates
and fences.
See page 48 for
more about
the historical
museum.
W
HITIANGA’S BUFFALO BEACH.
Buffalo beach? Why? Were bison
roaming, as the great herds in the
plains of the United States? No, the
HMS
Buffalo
– a hapless sailing ship, which was
wrecked on this beach after parting from her
Cooks Beach mooring in an 1840 gale.
She was run ashore by her commander, Mr
James Wood, and all crew were saved with the
exception of one unfortunate seaman by the
name of Moore and a boy named Cornes. The
ship itself was a total loss.
For over 100 years portions of the wreck could
still be seen when tides were exceptionally
low. In the 1960 tsunami, when the tide pulled
back enough to expose the ship, most of the
remaining relics were removed. Some can be
seen on display at the museum. Although the
wreckage has appeared in aerial photographs,
it is no longer visible at low tides and today
there’s likely little left of the
HMS Buffalo
.
The Buffalo was crafted from teak in Calcutta
(thus explaining the water buffalo masthead).
The English preferred ships of teak to preserve
the oak forests of England, and oak corroded
iron fittings, whereas teak did not. It was also
cheaper to build in India, much to the ire of
English shipbuilders.
in 1813 the ship was commissioned for multiple
uses: a Navy store ship (during the Napoleonic
War of 1815), a quarantine ship (1832 cholera
outbreak in England), then convict/troop/
emigrant transport ship. On her return sails to
England, she would be loaded with Kiwi kauri
spars, logged and shaped by the ship’s crew.
In 1836, on a sailing of around 158 days, she
transported South Australia’s first colonists
from England, numbering 176. The ship’s
captain, John Hindmarsh, was appointed first
Governor of the new colony.
Ashore, shipmates changed duties, building
houses for the colonists. Ten marines were
assigned by Hindmarsh as the colony’s
police force. However, this riotous, grog-
happy lot were themselves such a band of
troublemakers that Hindmarsh
tied their ringleaders to a tree.
Another peacekeeping force
was enrolled to keep these
rascals under control, and the
riotous Buffalo marines were
shipped out, to the relief of all
except the bar keepers.
After unloading passengers and
supplies in Australia, return trips to England
involved stops in New Zealand, where the ship
was fully loaded with kauri spars, felled and
shaped by the crew (see next page).
A non-sailing replica of the Buffalo (the bottom
is cement) is moored in the Patawalonga River
at Glenelg, a suburb of Adelaide, Australia.
At press time, the fate of the rundown ship,
currently a restaurant, is uncertain as the
Holdfast Bay Council struggles to find a way to
save it from being demolished.
There is a cairn north of the Mercury Bay
Hospital which will help you locate the wreck’s
location. To learn more about the
HMS Buffalo
,
visit the nearby museum to view the displays or
purchase a booklet containing a comprehensive
history.
Image created and painted by Gainor Jackson.
