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Private logs of HMS CALLIOPE , HMS OPAL, HMS VIVID, HMS DUKE OF WELLINGTON, HMS HOARE volume 2

Author Hugh Fitzroy Hopkinson (English, 1871 - 1922)

Date1889-1891

Object number00004422

NameLogbook

MediumInk on paper, boards, gilt, photographic prints

DimensionsOverall: 25 x 320 x 214 mm, 1.3 kg
Display Dimensions: 320 x 380 x 101 mm

ClassificationsBooks and journals

Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds

Terms

ships log

DescriptionThis book contains manuscripts of logbooks kept by H F Hopkinson, a midshipman, on the various ships he served, which included HMS CALLIOPE, HMS OPAL, HMS VIVID, HMS DUKE OF WELLINGTON, HMS HOARE. The first entry is dated April 1st 1889, the last entry is dated January 13th 1891. The book was printed by Waterlow & Sons in 1888 and throughout the volume there are diagrams, landscapes, photographs and charts (including Australia) in pen, pencil and watercolour.HistoryHopkinson's time onboard the MINOTAUR and NORTHUMBERLAND was spent cruising off coastal waters and visiting Lisbon (the log of the latter has a humorous frontspiece showing a minotaur saying: "Our boilers are worn out. Our guns are obsolete so its all up with the old 'MINNIE'. The ORLANDO, an armoured trade protection cruiser, took him to Australia via Gibraltar, Aden and the Indian Ocean and from Sydney to Auckland where he transferred to the CALLIOPE. This vessel sailed to Samoa, the object of rival claims between America, England and Germany. Germany had secured a German-Samoan state council intended to put Samoa under German control, its overthrow in late 1888 provoking England and America to devote more and more naval forces to the area. On March 15th, however, a tremendous hurricane put paid to the bickering and in the now crowded harbour of Apia a number of ships were sunk or grounded, only the CALLIOPE succeeding in reaching open seas and surviving ..,"The prospect of military action had been literally blown away... "(Paul M, Kennedy, The Samoan Tangle, Dublin, 1974). Included in this section are a chart of the CALLIOPE'S route from Wellington to Apia, a map of Apia Harbour, watercolour sketches of the schooner MATAUTA on a reef and of a native hut and a pencil sketch entitled ''Apia Harbour after Hurricane. March 16th 1889" with a key showing the various vessels involved. The second volume relates the return of the CALLIOPE to Australia via New Zealand, where Hopkinson rejoined the ORLANDO (which went back to New Zealand). The OPAL finally to Hopkinson from Australia to the United Kingdom.SignificanceThese logs by Hopkinson, detail life aboard a naval ship in the late C19th with descriptions of countries, including Australia, from a the perspective of a midshipman.