HMS Buffalo
Re-examination Project
OUR MISSION
Brief History
HMS Buffalo was built in India in 1813 and originally named Hindostan. Soon after its completion, the Royal British Navy purchased HMS Buffalo and repurposed it several times as a transport, timber carrier, quarantine and immigrant ship travelling between England, Australia, Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand. In 1840 while anchored in Mercury Bay, Buffalo was caught in a storm and became a complete loss. The wreck site now lies 50 m off Buffalo Beach. The shipwreck is a protected archaeological site under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014.
The underwater component of the project aims to:
01
Survey
and accurately map the exposed hull structure of HMS Buffalo on the seafloor and to update existing archaeological site records to be used for future management and public interpretation.
02
Record
the site using both manual and modern digital recording techniques to ensure detailed site observations and measurements are combined to produce a scaled site plan and a 3D digital model.
03
Sample
exposed hull materials to reveal new information on the vessel’s construction and to create a material reference catalogue to assist with provenancing existing Buffalo museum collections.
OUR SPONSORS
We would like to thank our sponsors of the project!
MEET THE TEAM
Kurt Bennett
MA IN MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGY
Also holds a PhD candidate at Flinders University, South Australia. He has wide ranging experience working in the Australasian region, both in consulting and academic research, and has collaborated on several different international maritime projects.
Kurt is an active member of the archaeological community in Australasia, and includes membership with the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology, the New Zealand Archaeological Association and the Royal Society Te Apārangi.
Kurt’s own research focuses on vessels dated between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with specific interests in shipwright behaviour, technology, hull assembly, vessel development and abandonment studies. https://flinders.academia.edu/KurtBennett
Matthew Gainsford
MASTERS IN MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGY
Matthew is a maritime archaeologist who has worked in Australia, Sweden and New Zealand since the early 2000s. He has both participated in and been project leader for multiple archaeological projects ranging from surveys to complex excavations both domestically and internationally, in the water and on land.
Matthews research spans multiple areas within archaeology, most recently concentrating on Swedish fishing structures and early NZ Mission Stations.
Other interests he has are GIS mapping, remote sensing and site formation processes in the marine environment.
Rebecca Cox
MANAGER OF THE MERCURY BAY MUSEUM
Rebecca has worked collaboratively with other community organisations on a number of projects including a BioBlitz with Auckland Museum that included an education component and a brand new exhibition partnership with the Department of Conservation. Community collaboration is very important to Rebecca and where she can she involves the community in any projects.
Rebecca has a NZ Certificate in Museum Practice and prides herself on making sure the Museum follows best practice standards where they can.
She is the curator of the current HMS Buffalo exhibition in the museum and has worked with the team to ensure the artefacts that are held are researched, catalogued and stored appropriately.
Rebecca loves her job in the Museum as it varies everyday. She enjoys meeting all of the visitors and students that come in for educational sessions.
