H.M.S. Rattlesnake (1822 - 1860)

Summary

H.M.S. Rattlesnake was a Royal Navy Atholl class corvette launched at the Chatham Dockyard, United Kingdom, in 1822. After service in the Mediterranean and in the Far East, and several years as a troop ship, she was converted to a survey vessel in 1846. Under the command of Owen Stanley, Rattlesnake was sent to the southwest Pacific Ocean to continue surveying work of H.M.S. Fly, in particular to determine a safe passage through the Great Barrier Reef and the Torres Strait. Tenders for the expedition were H.M.S. Bramble under command of Charles Yule, and H.M.S. Castlereagh. Scientists on board included Thomas Huxley, assistant surgeon and naturalist, and John MacGillivray, naturalist who also served in Fly. Despite a lack of adequate equipment and the ship being less than ideal for its mission, the results of the voyage included extensive surface and sub-surface temperature measurements, the collection of a large number of natural history and ethnographic specimens (including ancestral remains), and the survey of the waters of northeastern Australia and around New Guinea. On the death of Stanley in March 1850, command of Rattlesnake devolved to Charles Yule. The expedition concluded in the United Kingdom in November 1850. Rattlesnake was broken up in 1860.

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Bassett, Marnie, Behind the picture: H.M.S. Rattlesnake's New Guinea cruise, 1846 to 1850 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1966), 112 pp. Details
• Goodman, Jordan, The Rattlesnake: a Voyage of Discovery to the Coral Sea (London: Faber and Faber, 2005), 357 pp. Details
• Huxley, J., Thomas Henry Huxley's Diary of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake (London: 1935). Details
• Huxley, T. H.: edited from the unpublished MS by Julian Huxley, T. H. Huxley's diary of the voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake (London: Chatto and Windus, 1935), 371 pp. Details
• Lubbock, Adelaide, Owen Stanley, R.N., 1811 - 1850, captain of the Rattlesnake (Melbourne: London: Heinemann, 1968), 298 pp. Details
• MacGillivray, John, Narrative of the voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake: commanded by the late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S., etc., during the years 1846 - 1850, including discoveries and surveys in New Guinea, the Louisade Archipelago, etc., to which is added the account of Mr E. B. Kennedy's expedition for the exploration of the cape York Peninsula, 2 vols (London: T. & W. Boone, 1852). Details

Journal Articles

• Goodman, Jordan, 'Losing it in New Guinea: the Voyage of HMS Rattlesnake', Endeavour, 29 (2005), 60-5. Details
• Gould, John, 'A brief account of the researches in natural history of John MacGillivray, Esq, the naturalist attached to H.M. Surveying-Ship the Rattlesnake, on the north-eastern coasts of Australia, New Guinea, etc.', Contributions to ornithology, [3/4] (1850), 92-105. Details
• Morgan, Kenneth, 'Navigating the Great Barrier Reef: the inner and outer routes, 1815 - 1860', International journal of maritime history, 31 (1) (2021), 37-53. https://doi.org/10.1177/0843871421991164. Details
• Moyal, Ann, 'Owen Stanley and the Rattlesnake', National Library Magazine, 2012 (June) (2012), 8-11. Details

See also

• Huxley, T. H., The oceanic Hydrozoa: a description of the Calycophoridae and Physophoridae observed during the voyage of H.M.S. "Rattlesnake", in the years 1846 - 1850 (London: Ray Society, 1859), 143 pp. Details
• Moore, David R., Islanders and Aborigines at Cape York: an ethnographic reconstruction based on the 1848-1850 "Rattlesnake' journals of O.W. Brierly and information he obtained from Barbara Thompson (Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1979), 340 pp. Details
• Rice, A. L., British oceanographic vessels 1800 - 1950 (London: Ray Society, 1986), 193 pp. Details