HMS Sandfly (1872)

History
Name:	HMS Sandfly
Builder:	John Cuthbert, Millers Point, New South Wales
Launched:	5 December 1872
Fate:	Sold in 1883 to Samoa.
General characteristics [1]
Type:	Beagle-class schooner
Tons burthen:	120 bm
Length:	77 ft 0 in (23.5 m)
Beam:	18 ft 6 in (5.6 m)
Depth of hold:	8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Sail plan:	Schooner
Complement:	27
Armament:	1 x 12-pounder gun

HMS Sandfly was a schooner of the Royal Navy, built by John Cuthbert, Millers Point, New South Wales and launched on 5 December 1872.^[2] She commenced service on the Australia Station at Sydney in 1873 for anti-blackbirding operations in the South Pacific.^[2] She also undertook hydrographic surveys in the Solomon Islands and in New Guinea. Lieutenant Bower and five crew were massacred by natives on the island of Mandoliana, part of the Nggela Islands (then known as the Floridsa), in October 1880, with a punitive mission undertaken afterwards.^[3] She was paid off in 1883 and sold to Samoa.^[2]

See also

• List of massacres in the Solomon Islands

Notes

1. Winfield (2004) p.301
2. Bastock, p.60.
3. "Another massacre in the South Sea Islands, The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 30 November 1880, p.7.". Retrieved 17 October 2010.

References

• Bastock, John (1988), Ships on the Australia Station, Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. ISBN 0-86777-348-0
• Winfield, Rif & Lyon, David (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.