HMCS WOLVERENE photographic album
Date1890
Object number00050157
NameAlbum
MediumMorroco leather, paper, ink
DimensionsOverall: 250 x 318 x 40 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by the Enid Copeland in memory of Captain G S Lindeman
DescriptionThis leather bound photograph album was presented to Captain G S Lindeman RN, by the midshipmen of HMCS WOLVERENE on 22 February 1890, as a token of their appreciation for his interest and teachings during their service in the ship. It contains 47 photographs of New South Wales Naval Brigade and Australia Station naval activities in Sydney over the period 1887-1890.HistoryThe screw corvette HMS WOLVERENE was flagship on the Australia Station 1875-1882. Laid down at Woolwich Dockyard, England in 1859, the ship was launched in 1863 and completed the following year. WOLVERENE served on the North America and West Indies Station in the 1860s before being deployed to Australia, relieving HMS PEARL in 1875.
Under the command of Commodore John Wilson, ADC, RN, WOLVERENE assumed duties as the flagship of the Australia Station, undertaking various cruises and exercises in Australian waters, including hosting the Royal Navy's Detached Squadron world cruise visit in 1881.
When the ship was paid off in 1882, the New South Wales government requested that she remain on the Station for use by the Naval Brigade and the Naval Artillery Volunteers in their training under the command of Captain George Sidney Lindeman.
Decommissioned in 1892, WOLVERENE was sold to Peter Ellison of Balmain and fitted out as a barque-rigged sailing merchant vessel. Departing Sydney in 1895 for Liverpool via Cape Horn, WOLVERENE started taking on water and made for Auckland for repairs. The cost was deemed too high and she was laid up, hulked and stripped of everything of value. What remained was beached and burned. One of its 8-inch broadside guns is located in Cook Park, Sans Souci, Sydney.
From the Sydney Morning Herald 29 March 1887:
"In connection with the six days continuous' training of the Naval Artillery Volunteers at Easter, it is expected that about 200 officers and men, all told, will proceed on board the Wolverene, the use of which vessel has been specially granted to the corps by the Colonial Secretary and the Minister for Public Instruction.
The "blue-jackets" will assemble at their drill-shed at Fort Macquarie at 9 a.m. on Good Friday. They will then embark in their boats and be towed up the Parramatta River to the corvette by the steam pinnace which formerly belonged to the Wolverene. On getting on board the latter vessel the men will be mustered in watches, when hammocks and blankets will be served out to them, and they will immediately carry on slinging hammocks and arranging messes, &c.
After those operations are concluded the hands will be piped to dinner. In the afternoon it is intended, if practicable, to take one of the watches outside the Heads in the hopper barge Neptune, and the boats for target practice with the heavy gun at different ranges.
On Saturday various drills will be carried out on board the Wolverene. It is intended to hold a church parade on shore on Easter Sunday morning, and liberty will be granted to the volunteers in the afternoon. The remaining three days will be devoted to a great deal of hard work, which, it may be said, the men are looking forward to with considerable interest, so anxious are they to perfect themselves in the various drills and manoeuvres connected with their special branch of the defence forces of the colony.
Heavy gun drill, boat exercise (including the manning and arming of boats), battalion drill on shore, and cutlass exercise are amongst the drills to be engaged in. In addition to these, the men will be instructed in the nature and uses of the different kinds of shot, shell, and fuzes. The Commander, J. H. A. Lee, intends to observe the strictest discipline during the stay of the corps on board the war ship, and the usual routine of a man-of-war on actual service will be kept up as far as the surrounding circumstances will admit of this being done."
From the Sydney Morning Herald 19 November 1888:
"On Saturday afternoon 120 men of the Naval Brigade, under Commander Lindeman, R.N. were engaged in shot practice at the 80-pounder rifled gun battery, Middle Head. Two targets were laid off the North Head at a distance of 2000 yards from the battery. There was a strong N. E. wind blowing across the range, notwithstanding which excellent practice was made, both targets being shot away. Some little time was lost in laying another target, which, although it had many narrow escapes, still had its flag flying when the "Cease firing" was sounded at half-past 6 o'clock.
Captain Hixson (the officer commanding the naval forces) was present during the afternoon; also Dr. Knaggs, surgeon to the brigade, Commander Lewington, Lieutenant-Colonel Jaques, and the other members of the council of the Rifle Association, under whose auspices the match was carried on, and who generously voted £50 to be distributed in prizes, were also present. The match will be continued next Saturday, when the remainder of the brigade will fire. In future all big-gun firing will be carried on from the Wolverene."
From the Sydney Morning Herald 5 September 1911:
"DEATH OF CAPTAIN LINDEMAN
A SUDDEN END
The death of Captain George Sidney Lindeman, R. N., recently shipping master under the Department of Navigation, occurred suddenly yesterday morning at the offices of the Public Service Board.
Captain Lindeman had gone to the office to see Mr Gilfillan, secretary of the board, with reference to his retiring leave of absence, and was talking to him, when his head suddenly fell forward and he collapsed. Mr Gilfillan at once rang up Dr. Willis, at the Public Health Department, who on examination pronounced life extinct. Captain Lindeman had been under medical treatment for some time, and death was due to chronic rheumatism and syncope. The deceased, who was 66 years of age, leaves a wife and four children - Mr George Yelverton Lindeman, who recently retired from the Naval Forces with the rank of Commander, and now manager of the Commercial Bank at Narrandera, Mrs Claxton (Melbourne), Mrs Pelham (Sussex, England), and Lieutenant Frank Lindeman, Sydney.
Captain Lindeman was born in London in 1845, and was educated at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth. In 1859 he joined the training ship Britannia, and, being appointed in the following year to the line-of-battle ship Algiers, of 91 guns, served for three years in the Channel and Mediterranean fleets. From the Britannia he passed to the Leander, 50 guns, stationed in the Pacific, under Commodore Harvey, C.B., and was present with the squadron at the bombardment of Valparaiso by the Spaniards in 1865, when he was not only landed with a party of seamen to extinguish fires and protect British interests, but afterwards placed in charge of the barque Iquique with a prize crew from the Leander. In 1865 he became Acting Sub-lieutenant, and two years later qualified in first-class gunnery on board H.M.S. Excellent.
After serving as sub-lieutenant on the Northumberland he was appointed to the Virago, on the Australian station. The Virago was then surveying inside the Great Barrier Reef, and the young officer had the honour of giving his name to Lindeman Island, near Whitsunday Passage. In 1868 Lieutenant Lindeman joined the old cruiser Challenger, flagship of Commodore Rowly Lambert, in Australia, and four years later retired permanently from the service, and settled in New South Wales.
In 1875 he was appointed secretary to the old Marine Board, under the late Captain Hixson, a position which he held until the board was abolished in 1900 to make room for the present Department of Navigation, when he was assigned the office of Shipping Master. His work in that capacity is too well known to need elaboration.
In 1879 he entered the Naval Brigade, and commanded the Wolverine as long as she was in commission and manned by the brigade. Still earlier, in 1872, he had joined the New South Wales Naval Artillery on his retirement from the navy, but the multiplicity of his duties forced him to retire in 1875. From 1886 to 1887, the period of Captain Hixson's absence in England, he was in command of the New South Wales Naval Forces. When the local naval forces, the Naval Brigade, and the Naval Artillery Volunteers were reorganised under the Federal Government, he was ap- pointed acting captain-commanding the New South Wales naval forces, but the additional work at the shipping office compelled him to resign this position also in 1900. He was also secretary to the Sailors' Home and a member of the Royal Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society.
The deceased will be buried with naval honours. The funeral will leave his late residence, Lota, Ocean-street, Woollahra, at 2.30 this afternoon, for South Head Cemetery."
SignificanceThis delightful photographic album contains a snapshot of life in the New South Wales naval defence forces in the late 1880s. It details the training regime of the NSW Naval Brigade and the Naval Artillery Volunteers both on board and on shore. Gun drills, parade duty, manning the sails and other general naval duties and activities are recorded in this presentation album. Captain Lindeman himself is a significant figure in the formation and training of the colony's naval forces, and this album shows the high esteem in which he was held by his men.
1957
c 1955
