Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During the Years 1846-1850

In Short

This comprehensive narrative documents the four-year hydrographic survey of H.M.S. Rattlesnake across Australia, the Torres Strait, and New Guinea under Captain Owen Stanley. Written by naturalist John MacGillivray, it chronicles nautical operations, coastal cartography, botanical and zoological collection, and direct ethnographical observations of Indigenous cultures. The account concludes with the vessel’s return trip via New Zealand, the Falklands, and the Azores, while incorporating primary reports on the tragic overland expedition of explorer Edmund Kennedy. It remains a foundational primary source for Victorian natural history and Pacific exploration.

The Story

The narrative details the multi-year expedition of H.M.S. Rattlesnake as it charts navigating routes, reefs, and coastlines across Oceania. Setting out from Australia, the vessel conducts detailed hydrographic surveys around Cape York, the Torres Strait islands, and the Louisiade Archipelago, extending its reach along the south-east coast of New Guinea. Naturalist John MacGillivray keeps an exhaustive record of every landfall and offshore observation. The crew encounters diverse Indigenous populations, documenting local customs, dialects, agricultural practices, canoes, and village structures while bartering for provisions such as yams, coconuts, and tortoiseshell.

Amidst routine scientific collecting—ranging from land mollusks to marine crustaceans—the expedition faces logistical hurdles, heavy surf, and unpredictable weather. While anchored off northern locations, local trade and interaction proceed under cautious supervision. Tensions and risks are constant; the narrative records detailed observations of tribal warfare, burial ceremonies, and the delicate nature of coastal bartering.

The voyage takes a dramatic turn with the death of Captain Owen Stanley while stationed in Sydney. Command shifts as the ship prepares for its long homeward passage. Leaving Australian waters, H.M.S. Rattlesnake sails across the South Pacific, making port at the Bay of Islands in New Zealand, where the crew explores inland landmarks like the Keri-Keri falls and observes local flora and Maori fortifications. Continuing east, the vessel navigates the open ocean, observing oceanic birds before anchoring at the Falkland Islands to observe local cattle-lassoing and settlement life at Stanley and Berkeley Sound. A final stop at Fayal in the Azores precedes the ship’s arrival back in England, where the crew is paid off at Chatham after four years in commission.

Beyond the ship’s itinerary, the text incorporates a full account of Edmund Kennedy’s disastrous overland expedition to explore the Cape York Peninsula. Through the journals of botanist William Carron and statements from survivors—including Kennedy's loyal aboriginal guide, Jackey-Jackey—the book details the team's brutal journey through impenetrable freshwater swamps, rotten ground, and dense scrub. The party suffers severe hunger, sickness, and betrayal of rations by their storekeeper. As men collapse from ague and exhaustion, Kennedy pushes ahead only to be fatally speared by hostile natives. Jackey-Jackey heroically buries his leader, preserves his journals, and guides rescue parties back to the site. The work concludes with extensive scientific appendices, including comparative vocabularies of regional languages, cataloged bird species, and descriptions of newly discovered shells and marine life.

How It Unfolds

The voyage begins H.M.S. Rattlesnake sets sail to conduct hydrographic surveys off Cape York, navigating treacherous reefs and establishing contact with regional Indigenous tribes. The crew engages in active trade for food and native artifacts while recording regional geography.

Surveying New Guinea and the islands The expedition charts the Louisiade Archipelago and the south-east coast of New Guinea, making key observations on local geology, volcanic formations, and coastal biology. The crew barters for coconuts and yams from cutters while naturalist MacGillivray collects botanical specimens and land shells.

Tragedy and homeward bound Following the death of Captain Owen Stanley, the vessel initiates its long journey back to England. The ship stops at New Zealand to inspect inland waterfalls and local timber before crossing the South Pacific to the Falkland Islands and the Azores.

The doomed Kennedy overland expedition The narrative shifts to the grueling chronicle of Edmund Kennedy’s overland party, which struggles through impassable swamps and rotten honeycomb ground. Rations are stolen by the storekeeper, forcing the starving men to eat horseflesh and shellfish while succumbing to ague and fever.

The death of Kennedy and rescue Harassed by local tribes, Kennedy is mortally wounded by spears in a dense scrub. His guide, Jackey-Jackey, washes his wounds, receives his final instructions, buries him secretly in a tea-tree thicket, and successfully alerts the rescue vessel to save the remaining survivors.

Scientific cataloging and conclusion The book concludes with technical appendices documenting regional vocabularies, comparative linguistic analyses, detailed catalogs of birds, and descriptions of new species of mollusks and crustaceans collected during the four-year mission.

The People

• John MacGillivray: The expedition's primary naturalist and author of the central narrative. He is driven by a meticulous desire to document the flora, fauna, geology, and Indigenous languages of Oceania. He spends his time ashore collecting land shells, bartering for vocabulary data, and analyzing marine life.
• Captain Owen Stanley: The commander of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, responsible for directing the delicate hydrographic survey across dangerous coastal waters. He maintains naval order and oversees mapping operations until his sudden death during the voyage.
• Edmund B. Kennedy: The leader of the ill-fated overland expedition across the Cape York Peninsula. Determined to chart an overland route, he maintains leadership despite hostile terrain, extreme starvation, and internal storekeeping theft, ultimately dying from spear wounds in the wilderness.
• Jackey-Jackey: An Indigenous guide from the Hunter River district who accompanies Kennedy's overland party. He demonstrates extraordinary loyalty, courage, and wilderness skill, tending to the dying Kennedy, concealing his body from enemies, preserving his scientific papers, and guiding rescue parties back to the site.
• William Carron: The botanist attached to Kennedy’s overland party. He meticulously records the plant life, daily struggles, and severe starvation of the stranded men while taking charge of remaining provisions after internal theft is discovered.

In Its Own Voice

"The central pole projects beyond the roof, and to this is connected a framework of bamboo, thatched with grass, leaving a single small low entrance to serve as door and window."

MacGillivray describes the unique beehive construction of the native huts encountered on Darnley Island.

"A short search among the damp stones and moss brought to light some small but interesting landshells, consisting of a pupiform Cyclostoma, a Carocolla, and five species of Helix."

During a stop in New Zealand near the Keri-Keri falls, the author carefully notes his natural history discoveries along the riverbank.

"On the very brink of starvation and death--death in the lone wilderness, peopled only with the savage denizens of the forest, who even then were thirsting for our blood--hope, sure and certain hope, had for one brief moment gladdened our hearts..."

William Carron reflects on the overwhelming despair felt by Kennedy's stranded party when a rescue vessel sails past their position without stopping.

What It's Really About

The work explores the collision between nineteenth-century scientific ambition and the unyielding realities of uncharted environments. It examines the rigorous mechanics of maritime survey work, showing how imperial mapping relied heavily on patient empirical collection, linguistic cataloging, and precise observation.

At the same time, the text offers a stark, unvarnished look at human endurance and vulnerability. Contrast exists between the structured, naval routine of the Rattlesnake and the absolute breakdown of order and survival during Kennedy's land expedition. It asks fundamental questions about survival, the limits of human planning, and the essential dependence of European explorers on Indigenous knowledge, highlighted dramatically by Jackey-Jackey's heroic efforts to navigate and survive the wilderness when all European logistics failed.

Why Read It Today

This narrative appeals to readers of naval history, historical travelogues, and Victorian science. It provides an authentic, firsthand atmosphere of mid-19th-century maritime exploration, offering a direct window into the challenges of hydrographic charting and early ethnographical study. The writing maintains a clear, practical tone that relies on concrete observational details rather than embellished storytelling.

Readers should anticipate period difficulties. The book includes dense scientific lists, Latin taxonomies, and extensive linguistic tables that slow the narrative momentum. Furthermore, the text contains nineteenth-century colonial perspectives and period terminology regarding Indigenous populations that reflect the biases of its era.

What stays with the reader, however, is the stark structural contrast: the methodical, rhythmic recording of coastal shells and ocean currents on one hand, and the intense, agonizing suspense of the overland starvation diary on the other. The account of Jackey-Jackey's loyalty and Kennedy's tragic final hours remains one of the most compelling and memorable true survival narratives of Australian exploration.