Name/TitleSloop FLY and Schooner UNDINE – Dillons Bay
About this objectDrawn from a sketch made on the spot by Captain Oliver, HMS FLY, on the linen backing, watercolour heightened with white and scratching out on paper.
Captain Oliver was in command of HMS FLY during a surveying voyage of New Zealand and the islands of the South West Pacific, from 1847 to 1851. During Oliver’s command, he escorted the Bishop of New Zealand, the Rt Reverend George Augustus Selwyn, on a tour of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides and performed the same task around New Zealand for Governor Grey and the illustrator Cuthbert Clarke.
HMS FLY was already familiar with this part of the world, having been commanded by Francis Blackwood in 1841-45 during a survey of much of Queensland and New Guinea.
Oliver sketched this scene while the ship was anchored in Dillon’s Bay, New Hebrides (Vanuatu). Oliver was quite prolific as an artist and a selection of his work was published in 1852 under the title 'A Series of Lithographic Drawings from Sketches in New Zealand'.
MakerCaptain Richard Aldworth Oliver (1811-1889) - Artist
Maker RoleArtist
Date Made1850
Period19th century
Medium and MaterialsLinen backing, watercolour heightened with white and scratching out on paper
Place MadeDillons Bay, Vanuatu
Object TypeMaritime Paintings
Object numberSF000907
Copyright Licence
Attribution - Non-commercial - No Derivatives (cc)
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The mug is decorated with an underglaze and a blue transfer print. On the body, it is titled ‘Emigrants to Australia’. This type of body and glaze was discontinued by 1840. Comparison of the handle shape and the profile of the foot, point to the attribution of manufacture by the Davenport Factory.
Delta was a ship-rigged vessel with two decks and three masts. It was built in Dordrecht, Netherlands in 1839 at the shipyard of Jan Schouten and registered in the same port. Its hull was constructed of oak and sheathed in ‘yellow metal’. Delta was owned by H. van der Sande at the time of its loss and was engaged as a cargo trader.
The Delta carried 29 crew and passengers, while sailing from Melbourne to Batavia in ballast when wrecked at Kenn Reefs on 30 May 1854 whilst under the command of Captain J.G. Kunst. This vessel loss supports the pattern of shipwrecks located on a well-travelled shipping route that was poorly charted until the mid-nineteenth century. The crew of the Delta could see four other shipwrecks at Kenn Reefs at the time of their vessel’s loss.
Important image of a ship associated with Matthew Flinders, that would shortly become one of the most famous early shipwrecks in eastern Australian waters. This is a fine ship’s portrait, by one of the great exponents of the art