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Image Not Available for ERA Alexander Stevens
ERA Alexander Stevens
Image Not Available for ERA Alexander Stevens

ERA Alexander Stevens

Photographer
Datec 1890
Object number00056302
NamePhotograph
MediumPhotograph
DimensionsOverall (Mounted): 164 × 105 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection Gift from William Barlow
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.