1810

1810	21-Jan	Capt John Shortland, RN, died in a French military hospital at Guadeloupe.
1810	8-Mar	King Pomare II of Hawaii commanded a fleet of 42 European rigged slops and schooners. His flagship was the 178-tonne Lelia Byrd.
1810	12-May	Capt William Bligh, RN, deposed Governor of NSW, sailed for England in the ship Hindostan.
1810	16-May	George Bruce, a white chief of the Maoris and Chief Tippahee’s military leader, arrived in England in HMS Porpoise.
1810	24-Oct	Cdr Matthew Flinders, RN, arrived at Spithead on return from imprisonment on Mauritius.
1811	31-Jul	Capt William Bligh, RN, was gazetted Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron. The Admiralty back-dated the promotion to July 1810.
1811	7-Sep	The Sydney Gazette published a proclamation by Governor Lachlan Macquarie, declaring Garden Island, Sydney, a public domain.
1811	25-Dec	Governor Lachlan Macquarie and Mrs Macquarie celebrated Christmas in HM colonial ship Lady Nelson, on passage from Hobart to Newcastle. ‘My poor Elizabeth has suffered a great deal from the seasickness’, recorded the Governor.
1812	3-Feb	HMS Samarang, sloop of war, arrived at Port Jackson for urgent repairs.
1813	23-Feb	USS Essex, 32 gun frigate, Capt David Porter, USN, became the first US warship to enter the Pacific. In seven months Essex destroyed the British whaling industry in the North Pacific.
1813	1-Jun	HMS Shannon, frigate, Capt Philip Broke, RN, defeated the US frigate Chesapeake, Capt James Lawrence, USN. Lawrence’s dying command, ‘Don’t give up the ship’, has been followed by the RN and USN ever since.
1813	8-Aug	HMS Samarang, sloop of war, Capt William Case, RN, fired on the brig Governor Macquarie in Port Jackson. Capt Case claimed the brig had weighed without his permission and passed Samarang without dipping her colours.
1814	10-Feb	Capt John Piper resigned his army commission to assume the duties of Naval Officer, Port Jackson.
1814	4-May	Former RN Midshipman Peter Mills was proclaimed an outlaw by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. Mills served with Capt William Bligh in HMS Warrior in 1805 and accompanied him to NSW on his appointment as Governor. Mills was outlawed for alleged sheep stealing and consorting with outlaws. The charges were never proved. He was lost at sea in 1816.
1814	20-Jun	HMS Nelson, later HMVS Nelson, was launched on the Thames, England.
1814	19-Jul	Capt Matthew Flinders, RN, died. The account of his voyages of discovery was published on the same day.
1814	27-Jul	Surgeon Sir John Jamieson, RN, arrived in Sydney on the ship Broxbornebury. Jamieson was knighted in 1809 by King Charles XIII of Sweden for putting down a serious outbreak of scurvy in the Royal Swedish Navy. His official posting at the time was Physician to the British Fleet in the Baltic.
1814	13-Aug	The British whaler Seringapatam arrived at Sydney after a remarkable escape from the American frigate Essex in the Marquesas Islands. Seringapatam was captured by the frigate in the Galapagos Islands with the whalers New Zealander and Charlton, and escorted to the American’s base in the Marquesas Islands. The vessel was stripped of useful gear and provisions and held with the other ships in a fortified bay while Essex continued her raiding. On 6 May the crews of the captive vessels attacked the garrison and escaped in the Seringapatam. Despite the stripped condition of the ship and the shortage of provisions, the escapees arrived off the coast of NSW where they met the colonial brig Campbell Macquarie, which assisted them into port.
1814	25-Aug	The Russian frigate Suvorov, Capt Michael Lazarev, refitted at Port Jackson. Capt Lazarev reported: ‘A great crowd gathered on shore and gazed at us with curiosity, as this was the second Russian ship to call here since the settlement of the English. The authorities fired a Royal salute in honour of the Russian victories over Napoleon.
1814	17-Sep	HMS Briton, 5th rate, 38 guns, visited Pitcairn Island to investigate the living conditions of the surviving Bounty mutineers.
1815	4-Jan	The American privateer, Warrior, Capt Champlin, captured the convict transport Francis and Eliza off Santa Cruz. The Americ removed all armament, stores and cargo and abandoned the transport, which eventually limped into Santa Cruz. Francis and Eliza Wa reprovisioned and continued her voyage escoi by HMS Ulysses, receiving ship.
1815	6-Jun	Lt Charles Jefferys, RN, HMS Kangaroo, brig, completed the survey of Cape York Peninsula commenced by Lt Cook, RN, and discovered a new passage through Torres Strait.
1816	21-May	Alexander Baranov, Governor of the Russian America Company, made an agreement with King Kaumualii of Hawaii, whereby 500 Russian soldiers would be stationed in the islands in return for half of Oahu being ceded to Russia together with exclusive trading rights. The flag of Russia was raised in the islands and the Russian warship Rurick, Lt Otto von Kotzebiv, cruised the waters to ensure compliance with the agreement.
1817	12-Jan	HM colonial brig Lady Nelson sailed from Sydney to search for survivors from the brig Trial in the Port Stephen area. Natives interrogated by the ship’s crew said the convict who had landed from the wreck had built a smaller vessel and had sailed north.
1817	17-Jan	HMS Success, 5th rate, Capt James Stirling, RN, sailed from Sydney to explore the Swan River area of WA.
1817	6-Mar	Capt James Stirling RN, HMS Success, surveyed the Swan River, WA.
1817	17-Jun	Capt James Stirling, RN, HMS Success, selected Raffles Bay as the site for a new settlement in northern Australia. Stirling was ordered to find a more suitable site for a colony than Port Essington.
1817	7-Jul	HM colonial vessel William Cossar was seized by a party of convicts in Port Jackson and taken to sea.
1817	19-Oct	The Royal Navy adopted the 9000 item flag signalling system compiled by Capt Frederick Marryat, RN. The system was adapted from the French Navy manual. It was first demonstrated in Australia by HMS Warspite in 1826. Capt Marryat achieved lasting fame as the author of Mr Midshipman Easy.
1817	23-Oct	The monthly rate of pay for an able seaman in HM colonial vessels was £1 13s 6d. Soap and slops were charged against them.
1817	7-Dec	VA William Bligh, FRS, died in London and was buried at St Marys, Lambeth.
1818	27-Mar	Lt Philip Parker King, RN, HM colonial cutter Mermaid, discovered and named Goulburn Islands.
1818	20-Apr	Lt Philip Parker King, RN, HM colonial cutter, Mermaid, discovered Port Essington, NT, and named it in honour of VA Sir William Essington.
1818	21-May	Lt Philip Parker King, RN, HMS Mermaid, sailed through Dundas Strait and established that Melville and Bathurst islands were separate islands. He named Melville Island after Viscount Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, and Bathurst Island after Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State for Colonies.
1818	13-Sep	Capt Louis Claude de Freycinet, French corvette L ‘Uranie, set up an observatory and a water- distilling plant at Denham Sound, WA. De Freycinet removed the pewter plate erected on Dirk Hartog Island by the Dutch navigator Vlamingh and later presented it to a Paris museum.
1818	20-Sep	USS Macedonian, frigate, Capt John Downes, USN, was ordered: ‘Shape your course for the Brazil Coast, and thence round Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean’. The Macedonian established the first USN Pacific Station.
1818	16-Oct	HM colonial brig Lady Nelson returned to Port Jackson after an unsuccessful search for survivors from the schooner William Cossar in the Port Stephens area. A wreck, identified as the colonial schooner Governor Philip, was found on a beach 40 to 50 miles north of Port Stephens.
1818	16-Dec	Capt de Freycinet, French ships Uranie and Physicienne, made astronomical observations in west New Guinea.
1819	1-May	The Sydney Gazette reported the arrival of the colonial brig Elizabeth Henrietta from Port Stephens, with the sole survivor from the schooner William Cossar, wrecked in July 1817.
1819	8-May	Lt Philip Parker King, RN, HMS Mermaid, sailed from Sydney on his first survey of the Barrier Reef.
1819	1-Nov	Master’s Mate Robert Watson, HMS Sirius, died at Sydney. He gave his name to a bay, a suburb and a naval establishment at Sydney.
1819	25-Dec	The French corvette, L ‘Uranie, Capt de Freycinet, sailed from Port Jackson for France.