Photograph of a painting titled 'H.M.S. Calliope gleaming clear of Apia Samoa during the hurricane 1889', ca. 1889

SV/270

fonds

ca. 1889

Graphic Materials, Photographs

903477

1 photographic print - albumen, sepia, mounted - 19 x 29 cm.

Since the 1780s, American merchant ships had been traveling the Pacific Ocean to China, trading ginseng, furs, and silver dollars for tea, chinaware, and silks. As this trade increased during the 19th century, United States diplomatic policy focused on securing commercial access to both Chinese ports and the many island groups across the Pacific. Although Samoa was off the main trade routes, American missionaries and steamship promoters encouraged governmental interest in the islands. At the same time, Britain and Germany, each with colonial possessions nearby, were also interested in the islands; for example, German merchants in particular were deeply involved in the Samoan copra trade. During the 1870s, all three powers established treaties of friendship and commerce with Samoa and secured the right to establish coaling and naval stations at Pago Pago

In the late 1880s, German intervention in the civil war that broke out in Samoa outraged American public opinion and tensions grew in the islands. By March 1889, three American warships had been sent to Apia, Samoa, there joining three German warships, and one British, in a watchful standoff in the harbor. On 15-16 March 1889, a violent storm struck the islands, destroying or disabling six of the seven warships in Apia Harbor. Screw steamer USS Trenton, screw sloop USS Vandalia, and gunboat USS Nipsic were all wrecked, resulting in the deaths of 51 sailors. All three German warships also sank, killing 150. Only H.M.S. Calliope escaped. The disaster did ease tensions, paving the way for a previously scheduled conference at Berlin and eventually the islands were brought under a German-American protectorate in 1899

Reference:
Naval Historical Center. http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq102-3.htm (accessed 5 March, 2013)

1 sepia mounted photograph of a painting showing H.M.S. Calliope fighting the cyclone in Apia in 1889

Out of copyright: Created before 1955
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Pic.Acc. Upgrade Project - Information transferred from Pic.Acc.6179 as part of the eRecords Project 2012-13

Signed L.L. '[?] Burgess 1889'