HMS Buffalo Memorial

Here is the memorial to the HMS Buffalo, and her two lost crewmen. The wreck is here too, just 50 metres offshore, where it has been since July 28, 1840.

Crafted in Calcutta in 1813, she was initally named the Hindostan, but not for long, as she was bought up and renamed the Buffalo, when she arrived in England the following year. She was to have a short but eventful life upon the high seas. Her main task was the transport of convicts, and then settlers to the new colony of Australia, but her diversions were to prove even more interesting.

In Adelaide, South Australia, The Buffalo is celebrated, because the 1836 journey that transported a first wave of 200 settlers here, was under the captaincy of John Hindmarsh. He then became South Australia's first governor. In the 1980s, on site at Holdfast Bay in Glenelg, Adelaide, the HMS Buffalo replica was built as an exact copy, with the only exception being that the ceiling height was raised two feet for comfort, as a restaurant was contained within. It went out of business when it fell into rates arrears with Council, in about 2012.

The next chapter in the story of the Buffalo was a less democracy-friendly tale, also involving prisoners, and beginning in Quebec. A civil war was underway in what was then "North Canada," involving the 'patriots' who rebelled against the Government. Government forces captured and exported patriot prisoners, including one Xavier Prieur, who wrote about his experiences in "Notes of a Convict of 1838." The Buffalo was used to transport them to Australia as convicts, in conditions described as terrible, and there they remained. The patriots felt no fondness for the vessel or her 150 armed crew.

She would not undertake many more journeys before coming into trouble in Whitianga in July 1840. At that time, The Buffalo had delivered British convicts to Tasmania, and then troops requested by Governor Hobson to the Bay of Islands, as well as the Governors wife. Heading next to the Coromandel to pick up a return load of Kauri spars, she was mostly loaded when a massive storm ripped her away from her three anchors, after many long hours floundering Captain James Wood eventually made the decision to run her aground to save lives. Two crew were drowned and the captain wrote to Governor William Hobson begging for help. One of the anchors is in the Tauranga Museum, another is here at the Memorial, and there is a more complete display in the Mercury Bay Museum.

The Buffalo wreck only 50 metres offshore from Whitianga, but is not really fit for diving due to sand and silt. At one stage the ship gave up a pair of leg irons from the convict-carrying duties, and at another the entire remains were exposed during Tsunami conditions brought about by earthquakes in South America.

Image Credit: Google Maps and NZ Archives, This letter shown here is from Captain James Wood to Governor William Hobson, requesting assistance to save the crew and cargo of the HMS Buffalo