From 1803 to 1815, the Royal Navy concentrated its resources on fighting the Napoleonic wars. Once the conflict had ended the Navy was able to resume expeditions focussed on exploration and scientific research. In the 1820s alone, 26 ships sailed out on missions of discovery. HMS Blossom was one of those ships.
Reason for the voyage
The pursuit of scientific knowledge was inextricably linked with the aims of empire and trade. A perfect illustration is the voyage of the Blossom and the search for a shipping passage, along the northern coast of North America, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Due to their whaling interests, plus the lucrative fur trade, the Russians were keen to expand their territory. To prevent this expansion, the Hudson’s Bay Company agreed to help finance a British led expedition that would attempt to locate a Northwest Passage. The Admiralty agreed, and planning began for an expedition that would involve a three-pronged approach. A ship commanded by William Edward Parry would attempt to find a seaway via Prince Regent Inlet. John Franklin would lead an overland expedition from the west. H.M.S. Blossom would approach via the Pacific and rendezvous with Franklin to deliver supplies and support.
The Admiralty selected Frederick William Beechey to command the Blossom. He was only twenty-nine years old when he sailed for the Pacific.
Beechey was free to explore and survey the islands in the South Pacific. But this was secondary to his duties supporting the Northwest Passage expedition. He had strict orders to be in the Bering Strait in the autumn of 1826 for the rendezvous with Franklin.
To obtain supplies and water, the Blossom would be reliant on good relations with the Pacific Islanders. Items were loaded which could be traded or gifted. These included 50 yards of blue and red broadcloth, 4 cases of beads, jewellery and trinkets, 40 pairs of scissors, 1,000 fish hooks plus 2 double-barrelled guns, embossed with silver, to present to the Kings of Tahiti and the Sandwich Islands.
On 16th March 1825, George Peard accepted the position of First Lieutenant. On 19th May the Blossom set sail for the Pacific via Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro and Valparaiso.
The official instructions from the Admiralty included the following comments.
‘During your stay among these or any other of the islands of the Pacific which you may visit, you are to use every possible endeavour to preserve an amicable intercourse with the natives, and to caution your officers and ship’s company to avoid giving offence or engaging in disputes with them.’
From the time of Cook’s voyages, Admiralty instructions had included similar advice. The reality of many of these encounters was often very different.
The first encounter between the crew of the Blossom and Pacific Islanders took place at Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in November 1825. It ended in the death of a chief, the very outcome the Admiralty had cautioned against. Yet both Peard and Beechey felt that they had little choice other than to open fire. In his journal, Peard concluded that ‘our affray … arose principally from mistake originating in our ignorance of their language and not from premeditated treachery on their side’.
The next stop was Pitcairn Island. John Adams, the last survivor of the HMS Bounty mutiny, settled on Pitcairn in January 1790. Beechey noted that ‘The interest which was excited by the announcement of Pitcairn Island from the mast-head brought every person upon deck’.
In contrast to their interactions with the Islanders on Rapa Nui, Peard had only good things to say about the Pitcairn community, largely because the Islanders had much in common with British colonial values. Peard was struck by the strict observance of religious customs such as the saying of grace and the singing of hymns and by their desire to educate their children.
The Blossom left Pitcairn in December 1825. The ship made its way through the Tuamotu Archipelago, the largest chain of atolls in the world, spanning an area roughly the size of western Europe.
In March 1826, the Blossom arrived at Tahiti. Their stay there lasted several weeks. Beechey and Peard wrote extensively about their impressions of Tahitian life and culture. A party of Maori, arriving on the whaling ship out of New Zealand, performed a war dance for the crew of the Blossom.
From Tahiti, the Blossom visited Hawaii before sailing to Kamchatka in the Russian Far East. She arrived on 29 June 1826 only to learn that Parry’s ship, the Fury, had been destroyed by ice. They reached Kotzebue Sound in Alaska five days later than the appointed time due to adverse weather conditions. There was no sign of Franklin.
Describing an encounter with the people of St Lawrence’s Island in July 1826, Peard wrote of the ‘brisk barter’ that took place for bows, arrows and spears in exchange for glass beads and tobacco. He noted that the people ‘behaved with the strictest honesty, and if the bargain was objected to by either party, immediately returned whatever had been thrown down into boats for exchange.’
On 4 October deteriorating weather and ice forced the Blossom to set sail for California. She arrived in San Francisco Bay on 8 November 1826. Beechey, recognising its favourable position for trade, carried out an extensive charting of the Bay.
They sailed on to Monterey and then returned to Hawaii where they took on board provisions which would last them a year. After leaving Hawaii, the ship travelled on to Macao in China arriving on 11 April 1827. They returned to Alaska and spent a second summer in Arctic waters. It again ended in disappointment when three of the crew were drowned and the ship’s barge was wrecked in bad weather.
They sailed back to Monterey, followed by San Francisco, arriving at San Blas in Mexico on 20 December 1827. At Valparaiso in Chile they were told that Beechey had been promoted to Captain and Peard to Commander.
HMS Blossom finally arrived back in England in October 1828. The artefacts George Peard brought with him to the UK were given to his son, who in turn presented his father’s collection to the Albert Memorial Museum in 1916. This includes a number of Alaskan trade artefacts such as a harpoon rest.
A more detailed history of the HMS Blossom voyage is available for visitors.
