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BRAMBLE
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(10) |
Schooner
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Built in 1822, Plymouth.
Sold in 1876. |
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- 1825 Lieut. Thos FLAVELL, 06/1824, Falmouth.
- 1827 Lieut. W. HASWELL, 08/1827, Plymouth. June 1831 Plymouth.
- 1842 Lieut. Charles H. YULE, 02/4/1842, East Indies.
During 1843-45 she was tender to FLY, Cdr. BLACKWOOD, and they they surveyed the outer passage up the Barrier Reef of Australia.
Later BRAMBLE and the schooner CASTLEREAGH continued the survey along the south coast of New Guinea.
After the departure of FLY, BRAMBLE and CASTLEREAGH remained at Sydney to await the arrival of Capt. Owen STANLEY in RATTLESNAKE on 16 July 1847. He found them full of defects. CASTLEREAGH was so bad she had to be sold but BRAMBLE was repairable and she was ready for service again September. STANLEY was not impressed by her officers and replaced them all except for Lieut. YULE. - In November 1847 BRAMBLE accompanied RATTLESNAKE in a survey of the penal station at Port Curtis in Harvey Bay. After they returned to Sydney in January 1848 BRAMBLE sailed to inspect lighthouses on Cape Otway and the Kent Islands. Capt. STANLEY went with YULE in BRAMBLE to make a survey of Twofold Bay, a whaling station south of Sydney, to determine the site of a Custom house.
- In April 1848 RATTLESNAKE and BRAMBLE sailed for Cape York in company with the TAMO'SHANTER, a barque carrying the members of a land expedition led by a Mr Edmund Kennedy. With the help of 60 men from RATTLESNAKE he was landed at Rockingham Bay, some 100 miles south of present day Cairns, to travel up the coast and meet RATTLESNAKE and BRAMBLE, which were taking soundings up the Inner Passage, at the tip of Cape York.
It took more than four months to survey the 600 miles starting from Dunk Island near Rockingham Bay. They had the use of two 30ft "gallies", a pinnace and two cutters. They kept a good lookout along the coast for any signs of the Shore party and in August BRAMBLE was sent on ahead to keep a rendezvous with Kennedy in Princess Charlotte Bay, but when he did not appear after ten days Lieut. YULE sailed to rejoin RATTLESNAKE.
BRAMBLE and RATTLESNAKE reached Cape York on 7 October and anchored two days later in Evan's Bay. They had hoped to find a store vessel waiting for them but there was no sign of it or the Kennedy party. A pinnace was sent 60 miles to the "post office" which had been set up on Booby Island by RATTLESNAKE some years earlier and returned with some letters. BRAMBLE then continued the survey of the western end of the reef until the brigantine JOHN and CHARLOTTE arrived on the 23rd. with supplies and mail. She was followed by the ARIEL schooner with supplies, and two extra members, for Kennedy - On 1 December BRAMBLE anchored in Weymouth Bay unaware that she was in sight of the survivors of the expedition. Although they fired guns they failed to attract her attention and she sailed away. (Only 3 out of 13 survived.)
- BRAMBLE and RATTLESNAKE spent the next three months re-fitting at Port Jackson. BRAMBLE was so infested with cockroaches that she was sunk for a week to try and eradicate them. Not all the eggs were killed and they reappeared with warmer weather.
- In 1849 she joined RATTLESNAKE in a survey of the Torres Straits and the Louisiade Archipelago and In November BRAMBLE and ASP completed a survey of Bligh's Channel, Prince of Wales Is.
and Mulgrave and Bank's Is. in the Torres Straits.
BRAMBLE was paid off at Sydney at the end of 1850.
In 1852 she was used as a tender to CALLIOPE. - In 1855 a 120 ton cutter built in Sidney was probably a reconstruction of the 1822 BRAMBLE. She was employed on the Australian Station and loaned to the Colonial Government of N. S. W. On removal from the Navy List in 1876 she was used as a light vessel.
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