HMS Rattlesnake was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy launched in 1822. She made a historic voyage of discovery to the Cape York and Torres Strait areas of northern Australia.
Launched at Chatham Dockyard on 26 March 1822, Rattlesnake was 114 feet (34.7 m) long and 32 feet (9.7 m) abeam. As a frigate she carried twenty 32-pounder carronades, six 18-pounder carronades and two 9-pounder long guns. She was converted to a survey ship in 1845 and broken up in 1860.
Captain on the voyage to northern Australia and New Guinea was Owen Stanley. Also aboard were John Thomson as Surgeon, Thomas Henry Huxley as Assistant Surgeon ("surgeon's mate", but in practice marine naturalist), John MacGillivray as botanist and Oswald Brierly as artist.
HMS Rattlesnake was the ship that rescued Barbara Crawford Thompson, who had been shipwrecked on Prince of Wales Island, North Queensland, aged 13 in November 1844 and spent the next five years living with the local Kaurareg people, despite their reputation for being cannibals.[1][2]
   | Images from the voyage of the Rattlesnake - Table of Contents - Voyage of the H.M.S. Rattlesnake, 1846-1849 / Owen Stanley |
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