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:
“Sow seed—but let no tyrant reap;
Find wealth—let no imposter heap;
Weave robes—let not the idle wear;
Forge arms—in your defence to bear.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“Taking men into the union is just the kindergarten of their education and every force is against their further education. Men who live up those lonely creeks have only the mine owners’ Y.M.C.As, the mine owners’ preachers and teachers, the mine owners’ doctors and newspapers to look to for their ideas. So they don’t get many.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)
“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)