1840

1840	20-Jan	Capt Dumont d’Urville, L’Astrolabe, raised the French flag on Adelle Land in Antarctica. He named the territory after his wife.
1840	30-Jan	Capt William Hobson, RN, was appointed Lt Governor of New Zealand. Hobson was responsible for thwarting French attempts to claim the islands.
1840	11-Apr	Capt John Clements Wickham, RN, HMS Beagle, recorded: ‘I named this bay to commemorate the season of the Christian year, at which we visited it’ — Good Friday Bay, WA.
1840	28-Jul	HMS Buffalo was wrecked in Mercury Bay, New Zealand.
1840	15-Aug	Cdr Charles Francois Lavaud, French ship Laube, arrived at Akaroa, New Zealand, with a commission to establish a French settlement. Capt William Hobson, RN, Lt Governor of New Zealand, forestalled Lavaud by despatching HMS Britomart to Akaroa.
1841	3-Feb	The Lt Governor of Tasmania, Capt Sir John Franklin, RN, proposed to Sir George Gipps the installation of navigation lights and aids in Bass Strait.
1841	3-Jun	HMS Beagle, Capt John Lort Stokes, RN, sailed from Port Jackson to complete surveys of the Australian coast.
1841	1-Jul	Capt John Lort Stokes, RN, HMS Beagle, discovered and named the Albert River in honour of the Prince Consort.
1842	22-Jan	HM ships Erebus and Terror, screw discovery vessels, Capt James Ross Clark, RN, reached the furthest point south, Lat. 740 21’.
1842	27-Jan	Capt James Clark Ross, RN, discovered a live volcano in Antarctica and named it Mount Erebus in honour of his ship HMS Erebus. A dead volcano nearby he named Mount Terror after the other vessel of the expedition, HMS Terror.
1842	9-Mar	The French corvette L Heroine stood off Port Adelaide with her guns run out and demanded the release of the vessel Vile de Bordeaux held by the port authorities for trading under false papers. L Heroine held the port under virtual siege for 18 days, but departed when her demands were not met. Vile de Bordeaux was forfeited by the authorities and converted into a lightship.
1842	11-Mar	Capt James Clark Ross, RN, HM ships Erebus and Terror, discovered Victoria Land in Antarctica and named it in honour of the Queen.
1842	12-Mar	HMS Erebus, Capt James Clark Ross, RN, and HMS Terror, Cdr Crozier, RN, collided between two icebergs in Antarctica. Erebus was heavily damaged, but after temporary repairs reached the Falkland Islands.
1842	15-Mar	HMS Beagle, brig sloop, Capt John Lort Stokes, RN, arrived at Port Jackson on the completion of her first surveys of northern Australia.
1842	6-Apr	HM ships Erebus and Terror, Capt James Clark Ross, RN, arrived at Hobart, Tas. Ross’ Antarctic expedition added greatly to the knowledge of the waters south of Australia.
1842	18-May	RA Abel du Petit-Thouars, French warship Reine Blanche, claimed the Marquesas Islands for France.
1842	23-Sep	The French warship Reine Blanche RA Petit-Ihouars, trained her 60 guns on Papeete and demanded immediate payment of 10,000 Spanish dollars as indemnity for the mistreatment of French citizens by the native chiefs. To ensure there would be no recurrences the Admiral placed the island under French protection.
1842	15-Oct	HM ships Fly, corvette, Capt Francis Price Blackwood, RN, and Bramble, cutter, Lt Charles B. Yule, RN, arrived in Sydney to conduct a programme of surveys in the Great Barrier Reef.
1842	8-Nov	HMS Maeander, 44 guns, 5th rate, Capt the Hon H. Keppel, RN, surveyed the coast of New Ireland. The vessel was on a voyage from Port Essington to Port Jackson.
1843	11-Jan	Lt Charles B. Yule, RN, HMS Bramble, discovered and named Heron Island.
1843	17-May	The first war vessel built in Australia, the schooner Eliza, 119 tonnes, patrolled the estuary of the Derwent River, Tas, to put down smuggling and prevent the escape of convicts from the colony. The schooner was built at Port Arthur.
1843	26-Jul	RA Thomas, HMS Dublin, frigate, revoked the deed of cession transferring Hawaii to Great Britain. Capt Lord George Byron, RN, HMS Carysfort, frigate, raised the British flag in the islands in February 1843.
1844	13-Feb	Capt John Knatchbull, RN, commander of the sloop HMS Doterel during the War of 1812, was hanged at the Woolloomoolo Gaol, Sydney, for the brutal murder of a widow.
1844	27-May	HMS Fly, Capt Francis Price Blackwood, RN, erected the first navigation beacon in the Great Barrier Reef at Blackwoods Passage. Capt Blackwood transported a party in HM colonial cutter Prince George to the site for the construc-tinn of the beacon.
1844	2-Jun	J. Beete Jukes, naturalist in HMS Fly, Capt F. J. Blackwood, RN, reported on the probability of a large river emptying into the Gulf of Papua.
1846	16-Apr	Lt C. Yule, RN, HMS Bramble, took possession of Papua for Britain.
1846	26-Apr	The Pacific Squadron of the United States Navy commanded by Commodore John Drake Sloat, USN, frigates Savannah, Constitution and Congress, slops Portsmouth, Levant, Warren and Cyane and the storeships Erie and Relief was deployed to wrest California from the Spaniards.
1847	10-Jan	Battle of Los Angeles. United States sea and land forces captured Los Angeles from the Spaniards, thus securing the western seaboard of the United States. The naval squadron was commanded by Cdre John Drake Sloat, USN.
1847	16-Jul	HMS Rattlesnake, Capt Owen Stanley, RN, arrived at Port Jackson to commence his survey of northern Australian waters.
1848	21-May	HM ships Rattlesnake, Capt Owen Stanley, RN, and Bramble, Lt Yule, RN, landed stores for Edward Kennedy’s expedition at Rockingham
1848	22-Aug	An historic tug-of-war between HMS Basilisk, paddlewheel sloop, and HMS Niger, screw sloop, was conducted to prove the relevant efficiency of the two systems of propulsion. Niger won the contest. Both vessels later served on the Australia Station.
1848	14-Sep	Lt John Septimus Roe, RN, Surveyor General of WA, explored the south-western corner of WA between Perth and Esperance.
1848	6-Oct	HM ships Rattlesnake and Bramble arrived at Cape York on completion of a 1,000rn survey of the Queensland coast from Rockingham Bay north.
1848	2-Dec	Lt C. B. Yule, HMS Bramble, schooner, searched unsuccessfully for Kennedy’s expedition in the Gulf, Qld. The schooner was sighted by survivors of the expedition but were not seen.
1848	9-Dec	HMS Rattlesnake, Capt Owen Stanley, RN, investigated conditions at the settlement of Port Essington, northern Australia. Capt Stanley commanded HMS Britomart at the establishment of the settlement in 1838.
1848	11-Dec	Lt John Septimus Roe, RN, Surveyor General of WA, discovered large deposits of coal in the bed of the Fitzgerald River.
1849	24-Jun	HM ships Rattlesnake and Bramble, Capt Owen Stanley, RN, anchored in the Louisiades Peninsula while repairs were carried out on Bramble’s rudder. Capt Owen Stanley recorded in his journal: ‘The Hurdy Gurdy [mechanical organ] was then struck up which caused much amazement [among the natives] A looking glass in which most likely they saw their ugly faces for the first time caused at first much terror’.
1849	6-Jul	Capt Owen Stanley, RN, HM ships Rattlesnake and Bramble, landed on Chaumont Island during the survey of the New Guinea coast from Cape Deliverance to the Louisiades Archipelago.
1849	5-Oct	Capt Owen Stanley, RN, HM ships RattleSnake and Bramble, reported to Lord Stanley on his surveys of Rossel Island and the eastern end of the Louisiade Archipelago.
1849	6-Oct	Barbara Thompson, sole survivor of the wreck of the cutter America, was rescued from natives at Evans Bay, Cape York Peninsula, by a boat from HMS Rattlesnake. The white woman had lived with the aboriginies for five years. Dr Huxley, a scientist in the ship, recorded: "Barbara Thompson was quite young and good looking."
1849	3-Dec	HM ships Rattlesnake and Bramble, Capt John Moresby, RN, completed a survey of the south-coast of New Guinea.