Great Canadian Heritage Discoveries

Below are some of the key items the Canadian Boer War Museum has added to its collections in its ongoing efforts to preserve important Canadian heritage memorabilia from this period.

Battleships of the Boer War

Recently we discovered a wonderful series of watercolours, featuring four ships of war, dating from the late nineteenth century.

Three of the watercolours - these were cruisers - were in one frame, and were ships that straddled the age of sail to steam power, and the change from wooden to iron hulls.

The second watercolour - a battleship - was a fabulous painting of HMS Magnificent under power, and was in its own frame.

The pictures were in their original 19th century frames and wavy glass. They had obviously belonged to a British naval officer with a talent for painting. And he had commemorated his service in the Victorian Navy by painting the portraits of the ships in which he had served Queen Victoria and the Empire.

Probably the Magnificent was his most important - perhaps his last - posting.

Sometime before World War I this sailor's career had ended and he had likely settled in Canada, taking his memories, and his watercolours with him. His family had kept them, long after he had passed on, and someone finally decided the link with the past was now long gone and decided to put them up for auction.

Sadly, we do not know the name of the officer, and the ships in the other frame were not named.

But we know the officer was a careful painter, noting every detail in the Magnificent. We can only assume that he was equally accurate with the other ships in which he sailed, so we could use his eye for detail to try to match them up with old photographs of ships that once served in the British Navy in the 1870s and 80s.

The Mysterious Cruiser: The most stunning looking vessel of the group is the Highflyer Class, 2nd class protected cruiser, dressed in white near right.

The three funnels are the distinguishing feature of this class of warship; the Monmouth class of armoured cruiser is the only other class that had three funnels, but those ships carried a tall side turret of two, over and under, 6" guns, projecting over the gunwales beside the front funnel. Our ship carries only a single gun turret, so certifying it as a Highflyer class cruiser. The position, and shape of the crowsnests, fore and aft, is also different in the two classes.

Three ships of the Highflyer Class, of 2nd class light armoured cruisers were built between 1898-1900: HM Ships Hermes, Highflyer, and Hyacinth.

We believe the painting right, is probably the Highflyer herself, the ship which gave the class its name.

The painting compares to photos taken of Highflyer in 1900, when she looked exactly like this, below. The dark line, above the middle row of port holes, is pretty distinctive and does not appear on any of the many photos of other members of the class which we have researched.

The Highflyer Class, was a group of light cruisers, whose main armament was 11 x 6" guns, and 9 x 12 pounders. The ships travelled at 20 knots, with a crew of 450. They were 350 feet long, and displaced 5,600 tons, about a third of that of HMS Magnificent, above. All three ships were put into service during the first year of the Boer War.

Another photo of Highflyer c 1900, below, shows the great detail which the artist captured, with consummate skill, in his painting, even though the watercolour is relatively small. A unique feature, of Victorian warships was the way they draped the anchor chain, from the hawespipe below the gunwales, to the anchor bill on the rear of the foredeck. With the tiniest strokes our artist has very carefully hinted at this characteristic of Highflyer's rig - and Magnificent's above - in his painting.

Sinking of the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse:

At the outbreak of the war HMS Highflyer had won fame by intercepting the German Armed Merchant Cruiser Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, demanding she surrender. When she was refused, Highflyer opened fire and sank her, in one of the opening battles of World War I (Aug. 27, 1914). Only 35 German crew were rescued.

The surviving crew of the German ship protested, that they had not been sunk but that they had scuttled the former passenger liner.

Right is a patriotic postcard of the period, celebrating the sinking.

Below, are the Hunted and the Hunter as they looked at the time.

The Mysterious Warship #2: The second anonymous ship painting appears to be of a three-masted, one funnel, cruiser from the 1880s, shown below.

The shape of the bow is distinctive, as is the short single funnel, just abaft the fore mast. The two bulging gun turrets, one beside the main mast, and another between the main and the mizzen, are strong identification points, jutting out from the upper hull of the ship, just above the lower row of port holes. The artist captured them accurately, as well as the lattice-like ladder that runs down over the side just behind the funnel.

The photo which so closely matches the painting, is the British Corvette, Calliope.

HMS Calliope was a 2779 ton ship, one of two Calypso class steel corvettes, completed in 1884. She was designed for long distance cruising during the heyday of Empire when colonies all over the globe needed protection and servicing. She had a fouling-resistant coppered hull, for sailing in the tropics. She carried a full sailing rig as well as relatively powerful engines.

Calliope performed one of the late 19th century's outstanding feats of seamanship when her master managed to get her out of the harbour at Apia, Samoa on March 15, 1889, when a violent hurricane tore through the island.

Was our painter officer aboard, on that celebrated occasion, when several ships were wrecked?

Early steamships, which were given short funnels to start, ended their days with extended ones, to increase the draft and engine performance. Hence the tall chimney look of ocean liners that followed, like Titanic.

The Calliope was retired from active service in 1907, and became used as a drill ship for Royal Navy Volunteers below. She was finally scrapped in 1951.

The Mysterious Warship #3: The last mystery ship is the earliest warship featured in the paintings. Conceivably the artist officer served in her first; she is also positioned in third place in the frame.

The painting has an uncanny resemblance to HMS Leander, a second class cruiser built in 1882, photo below.

The sailing rig is a match, as is the bowsprit configuration and angle. She is square-rigged only on the front, and gaff-rigged behind the funnels. The yards were kept till the 1890s.

The cut of the bow, as well as the overall shape of the hull, even the paint job, is a match. The funnels and air ventilator scoops are placed the same, as are the life boats.

Clearly our officer painted none other than HMS Leander, built in 1882.

HMS Leander was a second-class cruiser of 4,300 tons, and 315 feet long. She mounted 10 x 6" guns, and four torpedo-tubes and did 16.5 knots. Though a good steamer - after the funnels were raised 6 feet to increase draft - the Leander rolled badly under some sea conditions, giving many of her crew of 278 the heaves.

In 1900, during a revolution in Panama, she showed the flag and protected the lives of foreign residents there.

In 1904 she became a depot ship for destroyers and lived out her life at Scapa Flow during World War I. She was scrapped in 1920.

But by then our painter officer had long ago left her, no doubt with a promotion to HMS Calliope.

What an amazing story four little watercolours, found at a small Ontario auction, can tell.

Another Great Canadian Heritage Treasure, saved from the trash heap of History, by the Canadian Anglo-Boer War Museum.

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