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Image Not Available for Sawarrah Island South Seas
Sawarrah Island South Seas
Image Not Available for Sawarrah Island South Seas

Sawarrah Island South Seas

Date1889
Object number00056296
NamePhotograph
MediumPhotograph
DimensionsOverall (Mounted): 284 × 215 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection Gift from William Barlow
DescriptionPortrait photograph of a group of four European men—presumably sailors from HMS Rapid—standing at the base of a massive tree in dense jungle. The notation ‘Sawarrah Is. South Seas’ is handwritten in black ink on the album page to which the photograph is attached.HistoryAll the photographs in this collection are associated with HMS Rapid, a Royal Navy Satellite-class composite screw sloop that was built at Devonport Dockyard and launched on 21 March 1883. It was later reclassified as a corvette. Rapid initially served on the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa Stations, before commencing service on the Australia Station in 1886. It was recommissioned three times in Sydney before leaving the Australia Station on 1 December 1897. In March 1902, the Admiralty announced Rapid would be sold out of service owing to defects in its machinery, but six months later the vessel was instead posted to Gibraltar, where it was used as an accommodation hulk for British workers at the naval dockyard. Rapid also served as a ‘mother ship’ to the submarine flotilla based at Gibraltar. The vessel was converted into a coal hulk in 1912 and renamed C7. In 1916, it was converted back to an accommodation ship, renamed Hart, and spent the next 30 years berthed beside HMS Cormorant, another late-19th century warship that was used as an accommodation hulk in its twilight years. Rapid was finally decommissioned from naval service in 1948 and sunk for target practice off Gibraltar the same year. Rapid was serving on the Australia Station in 1889 when seven of the photographs in this collection were taken. It was at Auckland (‘Waitamatu’), New Zealand on 26 February ‘after having visited the principal places in the South Island’. On 15 March, several American and German ships were wrecked at Samoa in a cyclone. In response, Rapid proceeded to Samoa (via Fiji) in early April. It departed Suva to sail to Suwarrow to hoist the British flag on 22 April 1889 (see “Suwarrow Island” in The [Brisbane] Telegraph, 25 May 1889). Suwarrow (spelled ‘Sawarrah’ in one of the photo captions) is an atoll in the Cook Islands and a flag-raising event took place there at the time of its annexation by the British in 1889. By October 1889 Rapid had returned to Sydney and on 2 November its crew entered a team in the Double Bay Regatta for the ‘five-oared service whalers’ category. The photographs of New Zealand, Samoa, Suwarrow and the rowing boats on Sydney Harbour all correlate well to Rapid’s cruise in 1889, as would the flag-raising event held in conjunction with the annexation of Suwarrow. Although the handwritten annotation on the photograph with the flagstaff states it was taken in conjunction with ‘landing of cable’, the official flag-raising event conducted in preparation for the Pacific cable took place in early April 1888. Further, the ceremony was performed by the captain of HMS Caroline and occurred on Fanning Island in the North Pacific (see ‘Britain in the Pacific - Further Annexations’, in The [Melbourne] Argus, 18 April 1888, p.7). Alexander Stevens never served aboard Caroline and Rapid was in Sydney awaiting its crew from England (which included Alexander). Alexander Stevens was born in Bethnal Green, London (Middlesex) on 24 August 1847. He joined the Royal Navy on 10 May 1867 as a Stoker 2nd Class aboard HMS Serapis, a Euphrates-class troopship launched in 1866 that spent the entirety of its career shuttling British troops between the United Kingdom and India. In addition to serving aboard Serapis, Stevens was assigned HM Ships Minotaur, Asia, Excellent, Vernon and Aria during his first ten years of naval service. On 1 May 1877, Stevens reenlisted and was assigned to the Devastation-class ironclad turret ship HMS Thunderer as an Acting Engine Room Artificer. Between May 1877 and December 1885, he served aboard HM Ships Duke of Wellington, Asia, Hercules, Warrior, Bullfrog and Vernon. Stevens was promoted to Engine Room Artificer in 1881 while serving aboard the 40-gun armoured frigate HMS Warrior. His last ship assignment in the United Kingdom was HMS Asia, a former 82-gun Canopus-class second-rate ship-of-the-line that was used as a guardship and flagship of the Admiral-Superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard during the 1880s. Stevens travelled to Australia in November 1887 aboard HMS Thalia, a Juno-class wooden-hulled screw corvette that operated as a troop transport. Following his service aboard Rapid, Stevens was assigned to HMS Curacoa, a Comus-class corvette that served on the Australia Station from August 1890 to December 1894. On 5 November 1891, he was transferred to HMS Mildura, a Pearl-class cruiser that served in Australia until 1902. Mildura would be Stevens’ last assignment with the Royal Navy, as he was pensioned ashore in December 1891. He enlisted in the colonial navy of Victoria the same year and served aboard HMVS Cerberus (an ironclad turret ship that was a progenitor of HMS Thunderer) from 1892 until August 1902. Stevens died in Melbourne on 15 September 1910 at the age of 63. SignificanceAll the photographs in this collection are significant for their association with HMS Rapid, a Royal Navy Satellite-class composite screw sloop that was built at Devonport Dockyard and launched on 21 March 1883. It was later reclassified as a corvette. Rapid initially served on the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa Stations, before commencing service on the Australia Station in 1886. It was recommissioned three times in Sydney before leaving the Australia Station on 1 December 1897.

Rapid was serving on the Australia Station in 1889 when seven of the photographs in this collection were taken. It was at Auckland, New Zealand on 26 February ‘after having visited the principal places in the South Island’. On 15 March, several American and German ships were wrecked at Samoa in a cyclone. In response, Rapid proceeded to Samoa (via Fiji) in early April. It departed Suva to sail to Suwarrow to hoist the British flag on 22 April 1889. Suwarrow (spelled ‘Sawarrah’ in one of the photo captions) is an atoll in the Cook Islands and a flag-raising event took place there at the time of its annexation by the British in 1889. By October 1889 Rapid had returned to Sydney and on 2 November its crew entered a team in the Double Bay Regatta. The photographs of New Zealand, Samoa, Suwarrow and the rowing boats on Sydney Harbour all correlate well to Rapid’s cruise in 1889, as would the flag-raising event held in conjunction with the annexation of Suwarrow.