Built of teak in Calcutta in 1813, The Hindostan (as she was originally called) was designed to carry rice from India to Europe. The vessel was purchased on its arrival in England by the Royal Navy for use as a storeship. Refitted and renamed HMS Buffalo at Woolwich in the same year, she was decommissioned in 1816. From 1831 to 1832 she was a quarantine ship as another cholera outbreak was feared. By 1833, she was fitted out for the "reception of female convicts" who were to be taken to Port Jackson, Australia. Having delivered her human cargo, and with an empty hold, she then sailed on to New Zealand for kauri before returning back to England. Later, in 1836 she became an emigrant ship, taking settlers and the first Governor to the Province of South Australia before coming to New Zealand for timber. HMS Buffalo made her third and final voyage to the southern hemisphere-carrying prisoners from the 1837-1838 Canadian Rebellions to Sydney. From Sydney HMS Buffalo sailed on to the Bay of Islands, conveying a detachment of the 80th Regiment under the command of Major Bunbury, and Governor Hobson’s wife and family. In the year 1840 on July 27 after arriving in Mercury Bay to collect spars, the Buffalo was at Cook's Anchorage (Cooks Beach) when the weather deteriorated, and a heavy easterly swell developed. Fighting the gale, by the morning of 28th July the vessel was being kept to the weather shore in the channel, (Whakapenui Point), when a sudden gust of wind together with a considerable swell and the ebb (outgoing) tide forced her onto the beach on the other side (i.e. Buffalo Beach) where she was run ashore. The loss of two hands, Charles Moore and a boy named Cornes, both of Chatham, England, occurred after one of the jolly boats overturned in the waves in the river opposite Whakapenui Point. Permission was granted by the Māori for at least one of them to be interred at the high palisaded burial ground Hukihuki, now the site of the Mercury Bay Museum. Dawn of the following day revealed a dismal scene. Wreckage littered the beach. Anything still being washed ashore was being saved by the Māori. One of Gordon Browne's buildings in his settlement at Ferry Landing was made available for the use of the men and for storing goods. Whenever weather and conditions allowed, work was continued on salvage activities. The masts were stripped, the copper returned for salvage. The poop deck planking was taken to build another deck on the Bolina which returned the survivors to Britain. The Buffalo's ribs are there still, embedded in the sand just beyond the breakers. https://mercurybaymuseum.co.nz/hms-buffalo-project/

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