1890

1890	26-Feb	HM ships Dart and Paluma surveyed waters off Cape York, Qld.
1890	16-Mar	HM ships Paluma and Dart were despatched to Cape York to search for the uncharted reef believed responsible for the loss of the passenger steamer Queta.
1891	11-Feb	Clipper ship Sobraon was purchased by the NSW Government as a replacement for the boys’ train-ing ship Vernon. The vessel was commissioned into the RAN as HMAS Tingira in 1912.
1891	1-Apr	The Auxiliary Squadron, HM ships Wallaroo, Mildura, Ringarooma, cruisers, and Karakatta, torpedo gunboat, in commission, and HM ships Katoomba, Tauranga, cruisers, and Boomerang, torpedo gunboat, in reserve, commenced opera-tions in Australasian waters. The squadron was in addition to the Imperial Squadron based on Sydney. All six Australian States and New Zealand contributed to the upkeep of the Auxiliary Squadron on a population basis.
1891	26-Jun	Six ratings were killed and 13 were wounded when a gun burst in HMS Cordelia during gun practice while on a cruise from Fiji to Noumea.
1891	30-Jul	HMS Himalaya, troopship, arrived at Port Jackson with relief crews for ships on the Australia Station. Himalaya was a steamship built for the P & 0 Line in 1853. She was chartered by the Admiralty as a troop transport during the Crimean War and later purchased. Commissioned into the RN, she was employed as a troop ship for over 30 years. The vessel was paid off in 1894 and used as a coal hulk until sunk by German bombers in 1940.
1891	10-Nov	HMS Philomel, cruiser, was commissioned at Devonport, England.
1892	14-Mar	Instructions to Naval Officers ... Slave Trade: ‘Fugitive Slaves. In any case in which you have received a fugitive Slave into your ship and so taken him under the protection of the British Flag, whether within or beyond the Territorial Waters of any State, you will not admit or enter-tain any demand made upon you for his surrender on the ground of his being a Slave’. Many ships of the Australia Station in the second half of the nineteenth century saw service in anti-slavery patrols.
1892	31-Dec	HMS Wolverine, training ship of the NSW Naval Brigade. was sold out of service
1893	6-Feb	HMQS Paluma, gunboat, Capt G. Pirie, RN, the steamer Elimang and the hulk Mary Evans, were washed high and dry in Brisbane’s Botanical Gardens. The same disastrous flood carried away three bridges across the Brisbane River and swept 12 other ships out to sea.
1893	19-Feb	HMQS Paluma, gunboat, floated free from Brisbane Botanical Gardens after being stranded by record floods in the Brisbane River.
1893	21-Feb	Japanese and US ships met in a confrontation at Pearl Harbour following a revolt by US citizens against the increasing migration of Japanese to the Hawaiian Islands. The Japanese Government despatched the cruiser Naniwa, Capt H. Tojo, to protect the interests of the Japanese citizens. Tojo was to become Japan’s naval hero in the Russian Japanese War.
1893	24-Apr	HMS Australia, 1st class belted cruiser, and HM ships Blake, Magicienne, Tartar and Partridge represented Great Britain at the International Naval Review in the USA.
1895	16-Apr	The RN Depot at Circular Quay, Sydney, was transferred to Garden Island.
1896	19-Feb	Admiral Wharton reported in an article in the London Times that HMS Penguin had made soundings in excess of 9140 metres in the South Pacific.
1896	27-Aug	RA Sir Harry Rawson, RN, led a military and naval ground force in an attack on the Sultan’s Palace at Dar Es Salaam, Zanzibar. The Admiral was later appointed Governor of NSW.
1896	5-Sep	The Government of New South Wales handed over the Garden Island Naval Base to the Admiralty.
1897	15-Oct	The NSW Naval Brigade, commanded by Capt Hixson, carried out gunfiring exercises at Port Macquarie. Sydney.
1898	20-Jan	The Antarctic discovery ship, Belgica, Capt Adrian de Gerlache, Belgian Navy, commenced the exploration of Graham Island and the Bellingshaussen Sea. Belgica wintered in the Antarctic and was icebound for more than a year.
1898	28-Apr	HMVS Nelson was sold out of service.
1899	25-Nov	The Naval Brigade from HMS Powerful, a flagship of the Australia Station, fought in the Battle of Graspan against the Boers in South Africa.