A range of naval vessels were used in New Zealand from its early settlement years to the formation of the New Zealand Naval Forces in 1913. In the mid-19th century, these vessels included frigates, sloops, schooners, and steam-driven paddlewheel boats. In 1846, five years after New Zealand was first proclaimed a colony, it bought its first gunboat. In the 1840s and 1850s, steam boats were used to survey the ports and the coastline. In the 1860s, New Zealand established the Waikato flotilla, its first de facto navy.

By the late 19th century, New Zealand was using cruisers and torpedo boats. In the 1880s, in response to the Russian scares, coastal defences were established, a mine-laying steamer was ordered, and spar torpedo boats began patrolling the main ports. In 1911, New Zealand funded the construction of a battlecruiser, and in 1913, the New Zealand Naval Forces were created as a separate division within the Royal Navy.

Early settlers

Polynesian settlers

The initial settlement of New Zealand occurred around 1280 CE when it was discovered by Polynesians who arrived in oceangoing canoes, or waka. The descendants of these settlers became known as the Māori, forming a distinct culture centred on kinship links and land. The earliest war boats to operate in New Zealand were the large decorated war canoes or waka taua of the Māori. These could be over 30 metres long and were manned by up to 100 paddlers. It was a double hulled waka that rammed the ship's boat of Abel Tasman enabling Māori to board and kill 4 sailors. Waka taua were used to transport warriors to and from battle especially during the Musket War period 1805 to 1843. Less often battles were fought at sea. In late 1863 many waka on the Waikato River were destroyed by New Zealand militia to prevent rebelling Māori from attacking Auckland. Settlers were annoyed that the waka had not been destroyed earlier in the war. This had allowed rebelling Kingitanga Māori from the Waikato to cross into Auckland and murder a total of 18 settlers living on the outskirts of Auckland. Waka taua are no longer used in warfare, but they are still built and used for ceremonial purposes.Cowan (1930) The Māori canoe Replica waka taua are built in traditional wood, fibreglass and plastic.Fibreglass Development Ltd. Waka. Homepage

European settlers The first European known to reach New Zealand was the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who arrived with his ships Heemskerck and Zeehaen in 1642. Over 100 years later, in 1769, the British naval captain James Cook of HM Bark Endeavour made the first of his three visits. From the late 18th century, the country was increasingly visited by British, French and American whaling, sealing and trading ships. In 1841 New Zealand became a British colony followed by a period of wars. New Zealand gradually became more self-governing and achieved the relative independence of a dominion in 1907.

In 1788 the colony of New South Wales was founded with a commission that technically included responsibility for New Zealand. In practice this had little consequence, since the New South Wales administration was not really interested in New Zealand. From the 1790s the New Zealand coast was increasingly visited by explorers, traders and adventurers. They traded European goods, including guns and metal tools, for food, water, wood, flax and sex. European settlement increased through the early decades of the 19th century, establishing trading stations and buying land from the Māori. However different concepts of land ownership led to increasing conflict and bitterness. Missionaries were also settling, attempting to convert Māori to Christianity and control European lawlessness.

In 1839, the New Zealand Company announced plans to establish colonies in New Zealand. This alarmed the missionaries, who called for more British control. Captain William Hobson was sent to New Zealand to persuade Māori to cede their sovereignty to the British Crown. On 6 February 1840, Hobson and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands.

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 , drew up an Admiralty chart of the Waitematā Harbour. The Britomart was a 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 , a steam paddle sloop, began the "Great Survey". took over and continued until 1856, when the harbours and most of the coast had been freshly surveyed. In the 1890s until 1905, updated the surveys.

New Zealand Wars

From 1840 immigration, mainly from the United Kingdom, increased markedly. New Zealand became a colony of Britain in its own right on 3 May 1841, and the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 established central and provincial governments.

As more European immigrants (Pākehā) arrived, the pressure on the indigenous Māori to sell land increased. Māori initially welcomed Pākehā for the trading opportunities and the opportunity to learn new technologies, but by the late 1850s some Māori began to resent the loss of their autonomy. The Hapū (sub-tribes) who willingly sold their land by the late 1850s were refusing to sell and putting pressure on other Māori to do the same. Some tribes such at Ngāi Tahu in the South Island sold vast areas of land. For Māori, land (whenua) was not just an economic resource but the basis of their identity and a connection with their ancestors. Land was normally in the control of the chiefs of hapū. Land sale records show that hapū and their leaders still willingly sold land to the government. Pākehā, especially from 1860, were keen to buy more land. This clashed with the decision of the militant Kingitanga Māori in the Waikato to refuse to sell.

This refusal to sell land and an attempt to set up an independent Kingitanga state was seen as rebellion by the government and was the primary cause of the New Zealand Wars in the 1860s, when the Taranaki and Waikato regions were scenes of conflict between the New Zealand government supported by British troops, colonial troops, local militia and loyal (kupapa) Māori fighting against the rebelling Kingite Māori. On their defeat in 1864 the Māori rebels forfeited some of their land. 3% of New Zealand's land was taken, although large areas of this were reserved for Māori and some of the land was never surveyed or occupied and subsequently returned to Māori. Defeat of the rebels was aided by the large flotilla of vessels brought to New Zealand by General Cameron in 1863 to operate in the Waikato River. The flotilla comprised shallow draught boats, including gunboats and barges for transporting troops and supplies, as the front line moved progressively south. Many of these vessels were sourced from Australia and captained by experienced Australian officers. Cameron also opened a second maritime link by bringing troops and supplies over the Raglan bar and building a redoubt at Raglan. Troops were marched over an old Māori trail that was widened by the Forest Rangers to allow access to the area north of Pirongia.

Royal Navy

In the early years of European settlement, New Zealand's naval defence consisted of occasional visits by ships of the Royal Navy based on New South Wales. There was no base in New Zealand.

In the quarter century from 1845, some twenty Royal Navy ships took part in actions between Māori and Pākehā, with the colonial government taking up some commercial ships in supporting roles. Another contribution came on loan from Australia, in the form of the Victorian naval screw steam sloop Victoria, in the first Taranaki conflict of 1860–61. They and the HEICS Elphinstone, East Indiaman, provided gun and crew, to form militia units for fighting ashore. The ships served mainly as communication, transport and supply links between places of conflict but, more importantly perhaps, also served as real symbols of British authority in areas where conflict was close to breaking out, or already had.

Royal Navy ships involved in the first New Zealand Wars NameType Armament Built Notes 6th rate frigate 28 guns 1837 5th rate frigate 36 guns 1832 Daphne-class corvette 18 guns 1838 Arrived Auckland from Valparaíso, 12 August 1845. Transported Colonel Henry Despard and troops to the Bay of Islands. 6 gunsWinfield (2004) p.160 1840 Hutt ValleyFirst steam powered ship in New Zealand waters Favorite-class sloop 18 guns 1837 6 guns 1845 Wanganui 6th rate frigate 28 guns 1824 Brig 12 guns 1844Arrived Bay of Islands and Auckland from Anyer, September 1845, with freight (mail, specie) for New Zealand from HMS Dædalus Wrecked at Herekino (False Hokianga), north of Hokianga, 11 April 1846. sloop 18 guns 1830 Royal Navy ships involved in the second New Zealand Wars NameType Armament Built Notes screw sloop 30 guns 1856 screw frigate 31 guns 1854 screw sloop 4 guns 1860 screw corvette 21 guns 1860 Sold 1903 screw sloop 17 guns 1854 Sold 1920 screw sloop 17 guns 1856 Sold 1884 screw sloop 17 guns 1854 screw corvette 14 guns 1851 screw sloop 14 guns 1846 screw corvette 22 guns 1861 Wrecked 1863 on the Manukau Harbour sandbars screw corvette 20 guns 1857 steam sloop 8 guns 1855

Since roads were few and poorly formed, the sea, with all its hazards was often the only practical means of communication. Royal Navy ships and their well-trained and disciplined crews were the mainstays of battles and skirmishes.

First gunboat In 1846 the Colonial Records of Revenue and Expenditure listed the purchase of a gunboat for Porirua Harbour for 100 pounds 17 shillings and 6 pence. This modest acquisition was the first boat purchased by a governing authority in New Zealand for use as a vessel of war.Cowan (1955) Chapter 12

The boat was a longboat which had been recovered from the wreck of the barque Tyne, near Sinclair Head, Wellington on 4 July 1845. No name for the boat is mentioned in any sources. Carpenters from HMS Calliope converted her into a gunboat. She was lengthened, fitted with a 12 pdr carronade at the bow, and equipped also with a small brass gun as protection against musket shot.

The Calliope took the boat to Porirua in July 1846. The gunboat was used for some time at Porirua on patrol duty, manned mainly by crew from the Calliope. In December it was transferred to Wanganui, again aboard Calliope. At Wanganui a young midshipman severely wounded a minor Putiki chief with an accidental pistol shot. Māori wanted the surrender of the young officer, which declined, led a small party of Māori to take on utu by the Gilfillan murders.CHAPTER VIII. THE WAR OF 1846 The gunboat saw more action in Wanganui until, damaged by its own gun recoil, it was disarmed in late 1847.

Assistance from Australia

In March 1860 the First Taranaki War started, and the colonial government requested help from Royal Navy and other ships based in Australia. In June 1860, HMS Pelorus, the flagship of the Australian Squadron of the Royal Navy, participated in the attack on Puketakauere pā during the First Taranaki War. Later that year, the crew landed at Kairau to support British troops under attack from Māori and in January 1861 a gun crew from the ship helped defend the British redoubt at Huirangi against the Māori.Naval Military Actions