NameTypeArmamentBuiltNotes

Calliope6th rate frigate28 guns1837

Castor5th rate frigate36 guns1832

Driverpaddle sloop6 guns[17]1840First steam powered ship in NZ waters

Hazardsloop18 guns1837

North Star6th rate frigate28 guns1824

Racehorsesloop18 guns1830

During her circumnavigation Driver became the first steamship to visit New Zealand, arriving on 20 January 1846,[3] and was involved in the Hutt Valley Campaign, which was part of the New Zealand Wars. At the time of her visit she was described as a brig-rigged 6-gun warship displacing 1,058 tons with engines rated 280 horsepower.[4]

On 11 March 1850 she was docked in Victoria Harbour to witness Richard Blanshard assume the Governorship of the newly formed Colony of Vancouver Island, and issued a seventeen-gun salute.[5]

Fate[edit]

She was wrecked on 3 August 1861 on Mayaguana Island, the most easterly of the Bahamas, in the West Indies.[1] — John Currin (http://goo.gl/S3EwxZ) via John Currin (http://goo.gl/wjZcz1)

HMS Acheron was a Hermes-class wooden paddle sloop of the Royal Navy. Between 1848 and 1851 she made a coastal survey of New Zealand, the first such survey since Captain Cook.

Acheron, under the command of Captain John Lort Stokes, was despatched to New Zealand in January 1848, arriving in November the same year.[2] In March 1851, due to a budget cut to the Hydrographer of the Navy, Acheron was ordered to be laid up in Sydney, Australia and her crew returned to England.[2][3]

Fate[edit]

Acheron was sold at Sydney on 23 April 1855 for £2,067 16s.[1] — John Currin (http://goo.gl/L6SKa6) via John Currin (http://goo.gl/02bdkR)

By 1840 several Royal Navy ships were engaged in hydrographic surveys directed by the Admiralty. Captain Owen Stanley, on HMS Britomart, drew up an Admiralty chart of the Waitemata Harbour.

[11] The Britomart was a Cherokee class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. In this survey, he named Britomart Point after his ship. Stanley was a talented painter, but he seemed to suffer from a temporary lack of invention when he named another prominent point the Second Point. Today this is called Stanley Point.[12]

1840 British assert sovereignty as French head for Akaroa

HMS Britomart arrived at Akaroa, on Banks Peninsula, a week before a shipload of French colonists landed. The ship’s captain raised the Union Jack to confirm British sovereignty over the area.

In 1838 the commander of the French whaling ship Cachalot made a dubious land purchase from Māori on Banks Peninsula. The Nanto-Bordelaise Company was formed in France with a view to establishing a settlement at Akaroa. In 1839 King Louis-Philippe agreed to provide assistance. Captain Charles François Lavaud, the French representative for the settlement, sailed for New Zealand in April 1840. A month later, the Comte de Paris set off for Akaroa carrying 53 emigrants.

In the period between the land purchase and the departure of the French colonists for Akaroa, the situation in New Zealand had changed. Britain had finally bowed to pressure to colonise New Zealand. The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (including two signatures gathered at Akaroa at the end of May 1840) and Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson’s declaration of sovereignty over the whole country on 21 May confirmed that New Zealand was a British colony.

When Lavaud arrived in the Bay of Islands in July 1840 he was unaware of these changes. While Hobson was friendly enough, he sent HMS Britomart, under the command of Owen Stanley, to observe the French in Akaroa. The warship left the Bay of Islands on 23 July and reached Akaroa on 10 August. When Lavaud arrived five days later he accepted that France could not create a colony without causing hostility. When the Comte de Paris arrived on 17 August, the Union Jack was flying over Akaroa. — John Currin (http://goo.gl/2J4wkT) via John Currin (http://goo.gl/sB0A6X)