Early Naval Vessels of New Zealand - Surveying The Coast

Surveying The Coast

The first general charting of the New Zealand coast was done with great competence by Cook on his first visit in 1769. The chart was published in 1772 and remained current for 66 years.

By 1840 several Royal Navy ships were engaged in hydrographic surveys directed by the Admiralty. Captain Owen Stanley, on HMS Britomart, drew up an Admiralty chart of the Waitemata Harbour. The Britomart was a Cherokee class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. In this survey, he named Britomart Point after his ship. Stanley was a talented painter, but he seemed to suffer from a temporary lack of invention when he named another prominent point the Second Point. Today this is called Stanley Point.

A detailed survey of the New Zealand coast was essential for economic development and in 1848 HMS Acheron, a steam paddle sloop, began the "Great Survey". HMS Pandora took over and continued until 1856, when the harbours and most of the coast had been freshly surveyed. In the 1890s until 1905, HMS Penguin updated the surveys.

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