An exceptionally rare original image of HMS Dwarf, 1872
Albumen print Photograph AUTHENTIC with creases and tear to the lh margin see photos
overall 20x 18 cm the ship itself being in a vignette 16 x 13 cm
HMS DWARF
Information only
Type: Composite Gunvessel ; Armament 4
Launched : 28 Nov 1867 ; Disposal date or year : 1886
BM: 465 tons ; Displacement: 584 tons
Propulsion: Double Screw Machinery notes: 495 hpi 120 hp
1870 China
2 Apr 1871, for census, Hong Kong.
Bax, Captain Bonham W.:
Bax was the son of Henry Bonham Bax (q.v.). He entered the Navy in 1851 and specialized in surveying. From 1871 to 1875 Bax commanded the survey ship DWARF on the China Station and published an account of the voyage. From December 1876 until his death in July 1877, he commanded the SYLVIA, also on the China Station. He published The 'Eastern Seas' (London, 1875).
_The Eastern Seas: Being a Narrative of the Voyage of HMS "Dwarf" in China, Japan and Formosa, With a Description of the Coast of Russian Tartary and Eastern Siberia, from the Corea to the River Amur, London, John Murray, 1875, Bradbury, Agnew & Co., printers, Whitefriars, Bonham Ward Bax (1837-1877) was the Captain of the British gunboat HMS Dwarf. In this capacity he spent over three years (May 1871- November 1874) in Asiatic waters representing British interests in the region. This book is a chronological account of his experiences during this period. The narrative presents important contemporary and first hand account of the situation in China, Japan, Formosa, the Loo-Choo Islands (Okinawa), Hong Kong and the Russian Possessions in Tartary and Eastern Siberia. A significant portion of the book is devoted to Japan. The HMS Dwarf made numerous calls in Yokohama and Nagasaki and Bax recounts his travels (including a trip to Mt Fuji) in Japan during those visits. The ship spent over four months in Nagasaki. On one call she protected foreign residents during the Sega Rebellion. The Dwarf was in Nagasaki in May of 1874 when the Japanese launched a punitive expedition against the Bootan tribesmen in Formosa out of that port and those events are discussed. She subsequently sailed to Formosa in June and Bax met with the Japanese commanders of the expedition. The book contains an account of a visit in the Loo-Choo Islands where the Dwarf made a 2 day call (10-12 Sept 1871) in Naha, Okinawa. At this time, written Western accounts of Okinawa were seldom seen.
29 November 1874 – arrived Hong Kong from Amoy
December 1874 – January 1875 - at Hong Kong, refitting
14 Feb 75 – sailed HK for Shanghai
4 March – arrived Shanghai “after an unprecedently long passage. The ship seemed unable to make headway against the monsoon...she was obliged to put into Amoy for fuel”
May – to Tientsin, where she seems to have remained, as a guardship until September
October – at Shanghai
Her movements between October and June have proved difficult to ascertain – the next positive mention I can find is for June 1876 when she is at Yokohama. On her return to England in 1877 it was stated that she had been “engaged from November, 1875, to June, 1876, in determining various meridian distances” – I am not sure what that means...
30 June - sailed Yokohama for England – I have not found her whereabouts in July, but she apparently made calls at Hodeidah and Jeddah (September?) before transiting the Suez Canal – she was at Malta in October
8 Apr 1879 Commissioned at Portsmouth
1879 Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa