HMS ALLIGATOR: FIRST Military Shooting in NZ

HMS ALLIGATOR (& the Isabella) (& Barque Harriet.)

HMS Alligator - that fired the 21 Gun Salute when declaring the first New Zealand National Flag  – was also later embroiled in 'The Harriet Affair'. - Alligator , a 114 foot (34.7m), 28 gun Atholl Class Corvette, was built of teak by the East India Company and launched March 1821 at Cochin, British India, and completed at Woolwich Dockyard (England) 3^rd September1822.

                                                                           

In April 1834, emancipated convict and whaler Jacky Guard, his wife Betty (Wed aged 15) with their two children were returning from Sydney onboard the Harriet, Commanded by a Captain Hall, when it was driven ashore by a gale near Rahoto on the Taranaki coast. 

The survivors made tents from the sail canvas close to the wreck, but two crew members deserted to local Maori with muskets & powder. Several days later the Harriet party were attacked by plundering Maori from Ngati Ruanui who were perhaps angered by the lack of decent booty. 

- In the attack 12 of the Harriet's crew were killed, and later butchered, cooked and eaten - and the rest were taken prisoner. - After two weeks Guard and five others were released in a leaky whaleboat on the understanding that they would return with a cask of gun powder to ransom the rest. They eventually reached Sydney and Governor Bourke sent them back with a rescue party which landed four months later set on revenge against the Maori. - This was to be the first ever use of British troops in New Zealand.

On 21 September 1834 HMS Alligator and Isabella arrived in Moturoa pa Taranaki with 60 British troops from the 50^th Regiment (together with Jacky Guard's party) bent on punitive action. - The eight captive sailors were let-go but Chief Oaoiti, who had waited with his new 'wife' Betty for his reward, was bayoneted ten times and taken prisoner. - They located Betty at Te Namu pa. After it was attacked and burned - Oaoiti was exchanged for Guard's wife and youngest child. 

They then rescued Guard's son from Waimate pa on 8^th October after HMS Alligator and the colonial schooner Isabella bombarded the pa for three hours and landed a strong party with a six pounder carronade gun. The Harriet crew opened fire on a group of 103 Maori on the beach and this slaughter continued for the next three days - as the sea was too rough for the Pakeha to re-embark and leave.

The Church Missionary Society protested loudly of this affair and with The Wesleyan Missionary Society asked the British Government to do more to protect the Maori, - when Jacky Guard was asked how Maori might best be civilised, he stated: "How would I civilise them? Shoot them to be sure! A musket ball for every New Zealander is the only way of civilising their country."

A SHORT LAND PATTERN MUSKET – ( 'BROWN BESS')

It is recorded that at Waimate pa, a white flag was raised by the Maori, lowered and raised again several times, but no cease fire was allowed by the European attacking force – "the bombardment that had commenced in anger continued in sport." -The British House Of Commons Select Committee On Aboriginals was concerned that such actions might jeopardise the trading prospects of subsequent Europeans !

- Betty Guard is said to have given birth to "rather dark twins" - Oaoiti perhaps being the father, however she returned with her family to live at Kakapo Bay, Picton, Marlborough where she had six more children, and died 'a remarkable and alert woman', aged 55 in 1870. - Jacky Guard was whaling off the Kaikoura coast until the 1840s and farming at Kakapo Bay when he died.

At the top end of The South Island in Marlborough - in The Cooke Straight - Alligator Point is named after HMS Alligator - with a bay to the immediate West called GUARDS BAY .. While to the East of Alligator Point in PORT GORE lays the wreck of the Russian cruise liner MIKHAIL LERMANTOV - which is very popular with SCUBA divers since it sank in 1986.
THREE DIVERS have died while on this deep wreck (38 meter - 125 feet).

Marty K.
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