HMS Alligator (1821)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Alligator.

History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Alligator
Ordered5 June 1819
BuilderCochin
Laid downNovember 1819
Launched29 March 1821
CompletedBy 3 September 1822
Reclassified
FateSold on 30 October 1865
General characteristics
Class and type28-gun Atholl-class sixth rate
Tons burthen499 91/94 bm (as designed)
Length
  • 113 ft 8 in (34.65 m) (gundeck)
  • 94 ft 8.75 in (28.8735 m) (keel)
Beam31 ft 6 in (9.60 m)
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement175
Armament

HMS Alligator was a 28-gun Atholl-class sixth rate of the Royal Navy. She was launched at Cochin, British India on 29 March 1821.

Alligator, under the command of Captain G.R. Lambert,[1] operated in New Zealand during 1834, leaving on 31 March 1834, but returned again in September the same year to rescue the crew and passengers of Harriet, which was wrecked near Cape Egmont, Taranaki and were held by the Ngāti Ruanui.[2]

Letter to James Busby regarding the Harriet Affair of 1834
The Standard of New Zealand, 1834, saluted by Alligator

In March 1834, Alligator was on hand (and fired the 13-gun salute) at the first hoisting of the first national flag of New Zealand, at Waitangi, Bay of Islands.[3][4]

She eventually became a depot ship at Trincomalee in June 1841, and was then converted to a troopship in July 1842. Alligator was finally hulked as seamen’s hospital at Hong Kong in December 1846.

Pinnaces from Alligator aided Nemesis (here) in attacking a Masked Battery at the Battle of the Bogue in 1841 during the First Opium War
  1. ^ Fitzgerald, Caroline (2011). Te Wiremu: Henry Williams – Early Years in the North. Huia Publishers, New Zealand. p. 236. ISBN 978-1-86969-439-5.
  2. ^ Colenso, William (4 April 2018). "The first European fighting at Taranaki - In Sherrin AA. The Early history of New Zealand: Part 1 of Brett's Historical Series: Early New Zealand, Auckland, pp. 435-458" (PDF). Colenso Society (Supplement). 9 (4): 1–20.
  3. ^ John Butler, Compiled by R. J. Barton (1927). Earliest New Zealand: the Journals and Correspondence of the Rev. John Butler. Early New Zealand Books (ENZB), University of Auckland Library. p. 404.
  4. ^ 'United Tribes Flag', URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/taming-the-frontier/united-tribes-flag, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 19-Mar-2008