Oil paintings by Roger Morris commissioned by Don Armitage
/Don Armitage commissioned and bought these oil paintings from Roger Morris a renowned naval artist who passed away this year.
They can be viewed, and are currently offered for sale, at Boat Books, 22 Westhaven Drive, Westhaven, Auckland 1010.
The painting shows the 150ft long HMS Tortoise moored at the entrance to Nagles Cove, on the west coast of Great Barrier Island in November or December, 1842.
It had been moored there since mid-winter to protect her from the winter storms that had claimed HMS Buffalo two years previously. Hence its upperworks had been taken down, and awnings erected to make for more comfortable working conditions.
The vessel while at this location had a scratch crew while the rest were at Te Karo Bay just north of Tairua where a cutting camp was established to cut down kauri trees and square them ready to transport back to England for urgently needed masts for the British Navy’s ships of the line battleships.
The schooner sailing past is the ‘Three Bees’ owned by John Kennedy, of Kennedy’s Bay, and was hired by the British Navy to shuttle between the Tortoise and the cutting camp transporting supplies, mail and men.
HMS Tortoise just inside Wakahou aka Slipper Island with Tairua visible in the distance in line with the stern of the vessel.
It is April 1843, and kauri spars are being towed from several miles up the coast and loaded through ‘raft ports’ in the bow and stern of the vessel.
In late December 1842/early January 1843, the upperworks were re-erected and the vessel sailed to the Tairua area where it was moored for a further four months while it loaded the large squared spars through the raft ports before heading to the Bay of Islands, where it picked up anchors recovered from HMS Buffalo, and then Auckland, where it picked up Governor Hobson’s widow Eliza and her children.
It then departed back to Nagle Cove, where it stopped briefly to pick up some live sheep and some equipment. Then, in mid-winter, it headed for Cape Horn and home to England. The vessel presently lies in scuba depth at Ascension Island where it was deliberately scuttled in the early 1860s.
HMS Coromandel is loading kauri spars within what is now called Coromandel Harbour in early 1821.
The largest vessel to be built in New Zealand up until the 1900s is the ‘Stirlingshire’ built at Nagles Cove, Great Barrier Island during the 1840s. The painting shows the Stirlingshire on the stocks in early 1848.
The ‘Stirlingshire’, having been launched in November, 1848, shown on 24th December, 1848, as HMS Acheron is departing Nagles Cove to go to Waiheke.
HMS Tortoise loading kauri spars in late April, 1843.
A note from David Armitage about this painting
The Royal Navy’s store ship, the 986 ton HMS Tortoise, made a voyage from England in 1841 by way of South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand before returning home 30 months later in 1843. Its primary purpose was to obtain topmasts for Royal Navy ships-of-the-line from forests in northern New Zealand. Her commander was James Wood. The reason for going to such trouble and expense as to go half way round the world to get them was that New Zealand was known to be a source of trees that produced high quality topmasts in good quantity. British naval power depended on having a dependable supply of such masts, and globally, that was not easy or cheap to source and maintain.
The vessel was the last of four Royal Navy ships to come to New Zealand for kauri spars, the others being HMS Dromedary in 1820, HMS Coromandel 1820-1, and HMS Buffalo on visits during the 1830s and beginning of 1840 at which time it was wrecked at what is now known as Buffalo Beach at Whitianga on the east coast of Coromandel Peninsula. At the time the commander of the Buffalo was the same commander, James Wood, as subsequently commanded the Tortoise the following year.
A topmast is above the mainmast and below the top gallant mast. Major Cruise of HMS Dromedary records:
“The immense spars requisite for making the topmasts of the larger classes of ships in the navy, had become so extravagant in price, and so scarce in Europe, that it was necessary to look for them elsewhere. -- Captain Cook had mentioned in his voyages that he thought the timber he had seen in New Zealand, if light enough, would make the finest masts for ships in the world ; persons who subsequently visited this island had confirmed his opinion, and a small spar which was brought from thence to England by the Catherine whale ship, was much approved of, and purchased for a foretop-gallant-mast for the Dromedary. It was well tried during its return to its native country, and proved itself to be, in seamen's phrase, a stick of first rate quality.”
The artist, Roger Morris, who died this year, was a gifted maritime painter, a maritime historian and had a deep knowledge of the technical aspects of sailing ship construction. Having researched the voyage of the Tortoise 1841-3 myself, I commissioned Roger to do the painting, supplied him with plans of the vessel, and interacted with him to get the image as historically accurate as possible. I felt confident that the project was in safe hands. The result speaks for itself.
Each spar was from 62-90 ft long and from 16-25” wide at the thicker end. Because freshly sawn kauri is light it floats well out of the water and so an average spar only weighed about 3-3 ½ tons. The vessel loaded 109 kauri spars and took them back to England - the largest cargo of such spars ever to enter the country. The crew and local Maori employed to help took a year to cut the kauri trees down, saw them into square spars and drag them to the coast, after which time cutters towed them to the Tortoise to be anchored alongside the ship before loading through the spar ports.
“From the days when Cromwell ruled England [1653-8] till the battle of Hampton Roads [in America in 1862 involving ironclads sinking wooden ships] sounded the knell of wooden ships of war, the heads of the English Navy worried over its timber shortage.... in all Britain there grew no trees suitable for the best masts. Dependence of foreign lands for masts, therefore, had to be recognised from the outset….”
‘Forests and Sea Power; the Timber Problem of the Royal Navy 1652-1862’ by R.G. Albion.
You can view these paintings and purchase from Boat Books, Westhaven
Ph: ++ 64 (0)9 358 5691