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Voyage of the Rattlesnake
In 1846 the British government commissioned a scientific exploration and charting of seminal importance to the history of Queensland.
In September 1846 Captain Owen Stanley was commissioned by the Admiralty Office to undertake an Australian and New Guinea expedition with instructions to: conduct the first systematic hydrographic survey of Hervey Bay, with a view to eventual settlement; an exploration of the Torres Strait to ascertain means of a safe passage; to identify a safe anchorage at Cape York; and to examine the southern part of New Guinea and the Louisiade Archipelago. Her Majesty’s Surveying Vessel Rattlesnake was commissioned at Portsmouth on 24 September 1846 with a complement of 180 officers and men. Rattlesnake departed Plymouth 11 December bound for Sydney. Also on board were the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley and the naturalist John MacGillivray.
The Rattlesnake arrived in Sydney 16 July 1847, where the schooners Bramble and Castlereagh were attached as tenders to the Rattlesnake for the survey. Another 10 men were commissioned, bringing the total compliment to 190 officers and men, the number required to successfully operate all three vessels. This small fleet left Sydney 11 October, arriving at Port Curtis on 8 November.
It is while at Port Curtis that Charles James Card’s diaries begin. Card appears to have joined the Royal Navy in 1846. He served on the Rattlesnake as a midshipman and later as a clerk between October 1846 and October 1850. He would have been about 14 or 15 years of age when the diaries begin in 1847. The journals cover the period spent from this first stop of the survey to the conclusion of hydrographic work in Sydney in March 1850.
Charles James Card's diaries differ from the published journals of Huxley and MacGillivray. They provide a more intimate account of life on board the Rattlesnake, describing many aspects of the lives of the midshipmen, including their pastimes and escapades at sea and on shore. Card also describes the coastline surveyed, as well as the flora and fauna found by the naturalists and the crew. There are also descriptions of encounters with Aboriginal peoples. Events described by Card include the landing of the Kennedy expedition at Rockingham Bay in April 1848, the discovery of the Scotswoman Mrs Thompson, who had been shipwrecked on Cape York several years earlier and had lived with the local Aboriginal people, as well as descriptions of Sydney, including the regatta and festivities in January 1848 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the colony of New South Wales.
Two journals kept by Charles James Card during his service on board HMS Rattlesnake between 12 November 1847 and 7 March 1850. HMS Rattlesnake, commanded by Captain Owen Stanley, and its accompanying vessels undertook an expedition to conduct the first systematic hydrographic survey of the central and northern coast of Queensland, the south coast of New Guinea and the Louisiade Archipelago.
These diaries are held by the John Oxley Library thanks to the support of the Queensland Library Foundation.
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Last updated: 5th February 2008
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