Diary of a Royal Marine aboard HMS Mohawk Solomon Island & Santa Cruz 1898

Island Cruise

H.M.S. Mohawk

Australia Station
Solomon Islands

&
Santa Cruz Group
South West Pacific Ocean

1898

Diaries of William Cocks - Royal Marines

About HMS Mohawk

Source National Archives (Greenwich) Mohawk Logs
Type: Cruiser 1886 3rd class
Built: Clyde (J. & J. Thomson)
Dimensions: 225' 0"
Beam: 36' 0"

Tonnage: 1,770 tons
Armour: 6-6" : 8-3pdrs : 1 tube (Originally8)?

Complement: 172 men
Speed: 17 knts Horsepower 2,200 N.D, 3500F.d.

1890 Sheerness
1893 N.A. and W.I   Captain E.H.Bagly
1901 chatham
Sold 4.4.1905 Garnham

From newspaper clipping inside cover Daily Mail Special  (unknown date).

PLANTING UNION JACKS

FOURTEEN ISLANDS AND A VOL-
CANO FOR THE EMPIRE

 News by the Australia Mail tells of the arrival
at Sydney of H.M.S. Mohawk, after a wholesale
annexation cruise among the Islands of
Melanesia. so successful was the trip that any
decrease of the empire owing to the ocean's
onslaughts on the Kentish cliffs in the past years

will be simply recouped by our recent aquisitions
in the pacific.

In April last the Mohawk left Sydney under
orders t hoist the flag of England on the Santa
Cruz, the Swallow, the Reef, and other islands.
These group of islands lie 400 or 500 miles east
of the Solomons, the home of savage cannibals.

Altogether in Santa Cruz and the other islands
the Union Jack was run up on fourteen islands,
namely:-On Santa Cruz,Utupua,Tinakula, in
the Santa Cruz group; Matema, Fenuloa, Lom
Lom, Nifiloli, Bangauena, Bamga, Natapa, Pelian.
Nukapu, Nalogo, Nupani,Tocupia, in the Reef
and Swallow Group.

One of the officers of the Mohawk,
in recounting his experiences said, "During
the cruise we burnt a couple of villages
at Vella La Vella to avenge the outrage on Mr
Prat, a British subject. Commander Freeman

went ashore had a "palaver" with the chiefs.
One notable character, Belungi, was charged
with being out head-hunting, and from the evi
dence it appeared that after

CRUISNG ROUND FOR

some time in search of a white head (they prefer
the European) he came up with a canoe laden
with eight young native women, who were out 

for pleasure. He shot six and took with
him. The charge being proved, Belungi was

given until the rising of the court for the pro-

duction of the two missing girls. These he re-

fused to hand over, so was taken prisoner to
new Guinea.

"One of the most interesting features in 

connection with our cruise was the visit to
Tocupia. This island is without a history. Its
people certainly are not kanakas, woolly-haired,
or stunted in stature. The whole island, which seems

to give colour to the Darwinian idea of a sub-

merged continent in so far that the formation is

mountainous with valleys, and has about 800 people

 on it. they are gigantic in stature; one we

measured was 6ft 10in., and the women are

proportionate. The men have long,straight

hair, which they dye a flaxen colour, and

which in thick folds hangs over their copper

tinted shoulders. The women,on the contrary,

have their hair cut short. Strange to say these

natives have no weapons of defence at all  A 

remarkable law among them is that they marry

only once, the superstition being that if a married

manor woman dies, no mater how many children

there may be, the deceased's spirit has gone 

ahead and is waiting for the other half.

"During the cruise we annexed a volcano, on

which at night, though not very active, one could

hear a rumbling noise and see a flame or glare

above it. This was in the Santa Cruz Group.