1850

1850	8-Feb	Capt Keppel, RN, HMS Meander, threatened to turn his guns on the flagship, HMS Havannah, Capt Erskine, RN, in Port Jackson. The incident occurred in a dispute over the relative seniority of the captains, following the death of Capt Owen Stanley, RN, in HMS Rattlesnake.
1850	7-Mar	Capt Owen Stanley, RN, died in HMS Rattle-snake at Port Jackson. The navigator was buried in St. Thomas’ Graveyard North Sydney.
1850	31-Mar	The Dutch schooner HNM Circe, Lt Brutel de la Rivière, arrived at Dorei on the north coast of New Guinea to establish a settlement.
1850	22-Aug	The term ‘limey’ for an English seaman was coined by migrants travelling to Australia in British ships. The term came into use in America in the 1880s.
1851	16-Jun	Capt J. Erskine, RN, HMS Havannah, was informed by the Colonial Secretary that Fort Macquarie, Sydney, was reserved for the use of Her Majesty’s Naval Service.
1851	1-Jul	Capt Sir Charles Hotham, RN, was appointed the first Lieutenant Governor of Victoria.
1852	31-Aug	SS Chusan ‘dipped her colours to HMS Acheron’ and sailed from Sydney on the inauguration of the first steamship service to Australia. The Shipping Gazette described the vessel: ‘The Chusan is 700 tons, bark-rigged and has the appearance of a man-o’-war. She is armed with a long 32-pounder abaft and a long 18-pounder and a 23-pounder carronade on the main deck.
1852	9-Oct	A special Admiralty committee examined the problems of manning the RN. Recommendations made by the committee led to widesweeping changes in 1853 which included the abolition of the press gang, increased pay rates and pensions for continuous service.
1853	23-May	HMS Electra, sloop, was detached from the Eastern Imperial Squadron for special duties at Port Philip.
1853	31-May	HMS Bramble was loaned to the NSW Govern-ment as a diving bell tender at Cockatoo Island. In 1873 the vessel was reported as a light ship. It was finally sold out of service in 1876.
1853	8-Jul	Cdre Matthew Perry, USN, sailed the US Pacific Fleet into Tokyo Harbour and opened Japan to Western development. The emergence of Japan as a naval power was a threat to Australian security.
1855	4-Apr	HM colonial ketch, Spitfire, was launched at Sydney. The vessel was described at the time as 65 tons displacement, 51 ft long, 16 ft 6 in beam, ketch rigged, and armed with a single 32-pounder long gun on a traversing carriage. The Empire reported: ‘Spitfire they named her, and one would like to know why the Governor stayed away from her launching’. Despite the newspaper’s lack of confidence the vessel served the colony well, voyaging as far as northern Queensland on Government business. Spitfire was not the first warship built in Australia but she was the first built for Australia’s defence.
1855	30-Jun	HMVS Victoria, sloop of war, was launched on the Thames.
1855	4-Aug	The Secretary of State for Colonies, William Molesworth, officially changed the name of Van Diemens Land to Tasmania. However, on 6 July 1838, Capt John Lort Stokes recorded in HMS Beagle’s journal: ‘To this portion of Australia I shall systematically apply the name of Tasmania’.
1855	12-Dec	HMVS Victoria, steam war sloop, Capt Lockyer, RN, sailed from the Thames on her maiden voyage to Australia.
1856	29-Jan	The VC was instituted by royal warrant. The first presentations were made on 26 June 1857. Twelve RN and two RM personnel were among
1856	26-Feb	RA Philip Parker King, RN, died of a stroke on board HMS Juno at Sydney.
1856	8-Apr	The Williamstown division of the Victorian Marine Artillery Corps was formed to defend Port Phillip.
1856	31-May	HMVS Victoria, Capt W. Norman, RN, arrived at Port Phillip on her maiden voyage.
1857	30-Jan	Standard uniforms for petty officers, seamen and boys were introduced into the RN.
1857	5-Feb	HMS Pelorus, screw steam corvette, was launched at Plymouth. Pelorus was flagship of the Australian Station in 1860.
1857	26-Mar	HMVS Victoria, sloop of war, trained her guns on hulks anchored off Williamstown Vic during disturbances following the murder by convicts of John Price, Inspector General of Prisons.
1857	18-Jul	HMS Pelorus, screw steam corvette, was commissioned at Plymouth under Capt Frederick B. P. Seymour, RN. Pelorus was flagship of the Australia Station in 1860 and during that year participated in the Battle of Taranaki in New Zealand. In this battle Capt Seymour was seriously wounded while leading a naval brigade of 600 men against the Maori defences.
1857	1-Dec	HMS Herald, Capt H. M. Denham, RN, was the first ship docked in Fitzroy Dock, Cockatoo Island, Sydney.
1858	4-Feb	The Naval Brigade from HMS Pelorus, Capt F. P. B. Seymour, RN, landed at Rangoon to garrison Meaday Fort. Pelorus was flagship of the Australia Station in 1860.
1858	18-Feb	HMS Sappho, sloop, 18 guns, was last sighted off Cape Otway. The ship and her crew vanished without trace although a brass cannon, recovered near Eden, NSW, suggests the sloop was wrecked in the vicinity.
1858	20-Feb	HM ships Elk, Boscawen and HMVS Victoria searched Bass Strait and the south coast of Victoria for HMS Sappho which vanished without trace on a passage to Sydney.
1858	1-Apr	The following ships were on the Australia Station: Iris, 26 guns sailing; Sappho, 12 guns sailing; Cordelia, 11 guns steam crew; and Bramble, tender sailing.
1858	28-Jun	The Admiralty approved an expenditure of from £4,000 to £6,000 for rendering Garden Island, Sydney, available for the repair of HM ships.
1858	9-Oct	The first ship was slipped at Williamstown Dockyard, Vic. — the hulk Melbourne.
1858	20-Oct	The Victorian Government approved the building of a graving dock at Williamstown.
1858	9-Dec	A Royal Commission on the defence of New South Wales presided over by Maj Gen Edward Macarthur named Russia as a potential aggressor.
1859	23-Feb	Boats from HMVs Victoria rescued the crew of the sailing vessel B. Norris which caught fire and sank in Port Philip.
1859	25-Mar	The Australia Station was established as a separate command. The Station was defined in a minute from the Admiralty: ‘Australia Station ... Bounded on the North by the Parallel 10 degrees of South Latitude — on the Eaast by Meridian of 170th degree of West Longitude on the South by the Antarctic Circle — on the West by the Meridian of 75th degree of east Longitude’. Ships from the Australia Station were involved in operations from Malaya to the west coast of America and the Pacific islands.
1859	15-May	Cdre W. Loring, RN, HMS Iris, offered to exchange Fort Macquarie for Garden Island as a base for RN ships in Australia.
1859	1-Jun	The Imperial Squadron of the Australia Station consisted of HM ships Iris, 26 guns sailing, Pelorus, 21 guns screw, Niger, 14 guns screw, Elk, 12 guns sailing, and Cordelia, 11 guns screw.
1859	10-Dec	Sir George Bowen arrived at Brisbane in HMS Cordelia, corvette, and proclaimed Queensland an independent colony.
1859	25-Dec	Christmas fare in HMS Scout, Capt J. Corbett, RN, in the western Pacific bound for China: breakfast: greasy cocoa and mouldy biscuits; dinner: pork and pea soup supplemented by a double issue of suet, raisins and flour; plum pudding; one water grog instead of the usual three water to one rum; supper: mouldy biscuit and boiled tea without milk. Scout was a wooden screw corvette.