Name/TitleWatercolour of the RATTLESNAKE in the Torres Strait
About this objectThis attractive animated scene shows the RATTLESNAKE at the critical moment navigating a narrow opening in the reef, with the BRAMBLE already in calm waters beyond. The event is described by MacGillivray in his Narrative of the Voyage: “At length an opening in the reef was observed, and the ship hauled off and hove to, while Lieut. Yule examined it in one of his boats. In the afternoon the BRAMBLE having made the signal ‘passage clear but narrow’ was directed to enter, and we followed her through a fine opening 400 yards wide…the name Coral Haven was bestowed on this new harbour”.
The young Thomas Henry Huxley, a naturalist on the expedition, gives a rather more graphic account in his diaries: “The opening is very narrow (a tenth of a mile, nautical), and it looks rather ticklish to see yourself passing within a stone’s throw of roaring breakers on either hand, however loudly the leadsman may sing out his ‘Deep nine’ or ‘By the mark fourteen'”. This drawing was worked up into a print by Brierly who tells us that the signal displayed, directed at BRAMBLE, is “Go ahead and shew soundings”.
The RATTLESNAKE was an unhappy ship; her commander Owen Stanley grew increasingly unstable throughout the voyage. Huxley comments that on the 14th June, “the skipper’s black dog ‘Native’, weary I suppose of leading a dog’s life among the middies, committed suicide last night by walking into the sea from the main chains. The skipper and his dog had this in common, that they liked each other, and were disliked by everyone else”.
MakerOswald Brierly - Artist
Maker RoleArtist
Date Made1849
Period19th century
Medium and MaterialsWatercolour. Pigment, paint and paper.
Place MadeUnited Kingdom
Place MadeTorres Straits, Australia
Measurements220mm × 270 mm
Object TypeMaritime Paintings
Object numberSF000716
Copyright Licence
Attribution - Non-commercial - No Derivatives (cc)
Explore by category
Maps and Charts
Date range: 1541-1836
Ship Models
Date range: 1629-1890
Maritime Paintings
Date range: 1793-1849
Manuscripts and Ephemera
Date range: 1768-c1850
Medallions & Convict Tokens
Date range: 1619-1880
Indigenous History
Date range: c1800-1959
Landscapes
Date range: 1768-c1850
Books
Date range: 1694-c1850
Currency and Shares
Date range: 1624-1823
Printed Material
Date range: 1541-1836
Maritime Archaeology
Date range: 1629-1854
Curator's corner
New acquisitions, staff favourites and curios
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