Except Benito:
- 1 × 64-pounder gun
With the formation of the Queensland Maritime Defence Force. To equip the new force the colonial government purchased two gunboats and a torpedo boat. However given the number of ports along the long Queensland coast it was realised that additional ships were required. Five ships had already been ordered for the Queensland Department of Harbours and Rivers when the decision was taken to convert them to also serve as auxiliary gunboats. This resulted in the fitting of a 5-inch gun and the relocation of the boilers below the waterline. The ships were as follows:
- Bonito
- Bream
- Dolphin
- Pumba
- Stingaree
These ships were built by Walkers at Maryborough and were the largest warships built in the Australian colonies before federation. The depression of the 1890s greatly curtailed operations with most of the vessels placed in reserve. Stingaree was listed until 1895 whilst Pumba remained on strength at the time of federation in 1901.
Bream (1963), Dolphin (1963) and Stingaree (1966) were sunk off Tangalooma, Moreton Bay. One of the others worked in private hands on the Brisbane River into the 1990s.
Famous quotes containing the words defence, force and/or gunboats:
“What cannot stand must fall; and the measure of our sincerity and therefore of the respect of men, is the amount of health and wealth we will hazard in the defence of our right. An old farmer, my neighbor across the fence, when I ask him if he is not going to town-meeting, says: “No, ‘t is no use balloting, for it will not stay; but what you do with the gun will stay so.””
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The force of the blow depends on the resistance. It is sometimes better not to struggle against temptation. Either fly or yield at once.”
—F.H. (Francis Herbert)
“Leadership in today’s world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)