James Stirling (Royal Navy officer)
Sir James Stirling was a British naval officer and colonial administrator. His enthusiasm and persistence persuaded the British Government to establish the Swan River Colony and he became the first Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Western Australia. In 1854, when Commander-in-Chief, East Indies and China Station, Stirling on his own initiative signed Britain's first Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty. Throughout his career Stirling showed considerable diplomatic skill and was selected for a number of sensitive missions. Paradoxically, this was not reflected in his personal dealings with officialdom and his hopes for preferment received many rebuffs. Stirling also personally led the attack in Western Australia on a group of approximately seventy Bindjareb men, women and children now known as the Pinjarra massacre.
Stirling entered the Royal Navy at age 12 and as a midshipman saw action in the Napoleonic Wars. Rapid promotion followed and when he was 21 he received his first command, the 28-gun sloop, and, in the War of 1812 between the US and the UK, seized two prizes. Brazen carried the news of the end of that war to Fort Bowyer and took part in carrying to England the British troops that had captured the fort. On return to the West Indies, Stirling made two surveys of the Venezuelan coast and reported on the strengths, attitudes and dispositions of the Spanish government and various revolutionary factions, later playing a role in the British negotiations with these groups.
In his second command,, he carried supplies and coinage to Australia, but with a covert mission to assess other nations' interest in the region and explore opportunities for British settlements. He is chiefly remembered for his exploration of the Swan River, followed by his eventual success in lobbying the British Government to establish a settlement there. On 30 December 1828, he was made Lieutenant-Governor of the colony-to-be. He formally founded the city of Perth and the port of Fremantle and oversaw the development of the surrounding area and on 4 March 1831 he was confirmed as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the new territory, Western Australia, in which post he remained until in 1838 he resumed his naval career.
In October 1834 Stirling personally led a group of twenty-five police, soldiers and settlers in a punitive expedition against approximately seventy Bindjareb men, women and children camped on the Murray River partly in retaliation for several murders and thefts. This bloody attack involving rifles and bayonets against spears is known as the Pinjarra Massacreand sometimes the Battle of Pinjarra. An uncertain number of Aboriginal men, women and children were killed during this encounter; Stirling reported 15 males killed, John Septimus Roe 15–20, and an unidentified eyewitness 25–30 including 1 woman and several children with probably more floating down with the stream. One of Stirling's party was injured and one was injured and died about two weeks later, although it is uncertain if from existing injuries, injuries suffered during the massacre, poor medical treatment after the massacre, or a combination thereof. An uncertain number of Bindjareb were injured, and an uncertain number died of their injuries.
From 1840 to 1844, in command of the 80-gun, he patrolled the Mediterranean with instructions to "show the flag" and keep an eye on the French. In 1847, he was given command of the 120-gun first rate ship of the line and his first commission was to conduct Her Majesty, the Dowager Queen Adelaide on trips to Lisbon and Madeira and then back to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. After that, Howe was assigned to the eastern Mediterranean, where she reinforced the squadron led by Vice Admiral Parker using gunboat diplomacy to secure an uneasy peace in the region.
Stirling's fifth and final command was as Commander in Chief, China and the East Indies Station, and his flag, as Rear Admiral of the White, was hoisted on on 11 May 1854. Shortly afterwards news arrived that war had been declared on Russia. Stirling was anxious to prevent Russian ships from sheltering in Japanese ports and menacing allied shipping and, after lengthy negotiations through the Nagasaki Magistrate, concluded a Treaty of Friendship with the Japanese. The treaty was endorsed by the British Government, but Stirling was criticised in the popular press for not finding and engaging with the Russian fleet.
Family background
Stirling was the fifth of eight sons, ninth of the sixteen children, of Andrew Stirling, Esq. of Drumpellier near Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, and his father's second cousin, Anne Stirling.The Glaswegian Stirling family was made enormously wealthy by the slave trade in Britain, and Stirling's father in law James Mangles was a wealthy Atlantic Ocean slaver. The Stirling family were also well-known and celebrated in the naval annals of the 18th century. His maternal grandfather was Admiral Sir Walter Stirling and his uncle was Admiral Sir Charles Stirling. With such a family background, it was natural for James to enter the Royal Navy. His education at Westminster School was interleaved with periods of training on board British warships, and on 14 January 1804, at the age of 12, he entered the navy as a First-Class Volunteer, embarking on the storeship HMS Camel for the West Indies. Thus he began a distinguished career.
Early career
Period as a midshipman
Stirling trained for midshipman on board and also served for a period on under the flag of Admiral Sir John Duckworth, Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Squadron. He passed his midshipman tests on 20 January 1805 and shortly afterwards was posted to, but on 27 June, at the request of his uncle, Rear-Admiral Charles Stirling, he joined his uncle's flagship, the 98-gun.The following month, at age 14, he was to see his first naval action. Glory was in the fleet, commanded by Vice-Admiral Robert Calder, which in July that year engaged against the combined French and Spanish fleets off Cape Finisterre during the Napoleonic Wars. Glory sustained a damaged foremast spar and sails "much torn". After the battle, the Squadron returned to England with two captured Spanish ships as prizes.
In July 1806 his uncle was given a new ship,, and orders to convoy General Samuel Auchmuty and his troops to the Río de la Plata and take over command of the squadron there from Admiral Sir Home Popham on the flagship. James accompanied his uncle and saw the fall of Montevideo to General Auchmuty's forces and the capture of twenty-five warships and more than 10,000 tons of merchant shipping. In August 1807 the Stirlings crossed the South Atlantic for a stay of five months at the Cape of Good Hope and at the end of February 1808 Diadem returned to England via a short period in Rio de Janeiro.
On arrival in England in April, Midshipman Stirling was posted to under Captain Henry Blackwood. At this time he was preparing for his examinations to become a lieutenant, and Blackwood arranged for him to have short stints as Acting Lieutenant on other vessels in the Channel Fleet. He started his examinations at Somerset House on 1 August 1809 and on 12 August rejoined Warspite as a full Lieutenant.
West Indies
On 1 April 1810 Stirling was transferred from Warspite to under Captain R.D. Dunn and moved with Dunn when the Captain was transferred to in November. A year later, on 20 November 1811, he received a significant elevation to flag lieutenant on, the flagship of his uncle, now vice-admiral and commander-in-chief of the Jamaica Station. On 3 March 1812, he was appointed acting commander of the sloop and three months later, at age 21, he was promoted to the rank of commander. Soon after that he was given command of the 28-gun sloop, built in 1808, in which he was to serve for six years.In the War of 1812 between the United States of America and Britain, the role assigned to the ships of the Jamaica Station was to attack the US coast and ports on the Gulf of Mexico and to destroy their ships and stores. On 11 July 1812 Brazen weighed anchor on Stirling's first mission, which was to be against New Orleans and the Mississippi delta. However, Brazen was severely damaged by a hurricane and had to abandon the mission and enter the Spanish port of Pensacola to carry out repairs. Despite this, Stirling was able to make a valuable survey of Mobile Bay and the Spanish-held Florida coastline and capture an American ship, which he took back to Jamaica as a prize on 20 November.
He had no immediate opportunity to revisit the Gulf of Mexico, as Brazen was ordered to return to England for a maintenance survey. After docking in Sheerness for four months, the ship escorted a convoy carrying settlers and stores to Hudson Bay. On his return to the Strait of Dover at the end of December 1813, Stirling received confidential orders for an important mission, to carry the Duke of Brunswick to Holland. After that, during most of 1814, Brazen patrolled the Irish Sea and the Hebrides in search of French or American ships until, at the end of the year, Stirling received orders to return to the West Indies, to the Windward Islands Station at Barbados, where Admiral Duckworth was now Commander-in-Chief.
There were now two stations in the West Indies, at Barbados and Jamaica, and for a while Brazen shuttled between the two, carrying communications between the two admirals. On one such trip Stirling was introduced to Simón Bolívar, who was in Jamaica following a defeat on the South American mainland. Soon after that he was given a mission to carry the news of the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, to the British troops under the command of General John Lambert, near New Orleans, and to assist in their return to England. His reconnaissance of Mobile Bay and the coast of Florida three years earlier now stood him in good stead. The troops, who had captured Fort Bowyer, were recovered and some of them, under the command of Captain Harry Smith, were taken to England on Brazen after surviving a severe gale in the Gulf of Florida. Smith was impressed with Stirling's seamanship and became a long-standing friend.
The Treaty of Paris, signed by France, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia on 20 Nov 1815, ended the Napoleonic Wars and a large fleet was no longer needed. The Admiralty set about decommissioning ships and retiring officers. However, Stirling and Brazen received a stay of execution, as they were needed again in the West Indies. Spain was losing its grip on the north of South America and rival factions were struggling for power. So close to the West Indies, Britain had an interest in the establishment of secure government on the mainland, but needed to be careful to avoid offending Spain, now an ally. Brazen arrived at Barbados in June 1816 and on 20 July Stirling and the Barbados Harbourmaster were sent to survey the coast of Venezuela and gain intelligence regarding the attitudes of the population and the disposition of the various revolutionary factions.
After making his report Stirling went back to patrolling the Caribbean with orders to prevent piracy and the contraband trade. Late in September he seized the. This action turned out to be unwise. Hércules, not to be confused with Hercule on which Stirling had served in 1804, was nicknamed Black Frigate and had at one time been the flagship of the Argentine Navy. When taken by Stirling, she was a privateer with 22 guns carrying a valuable cargo plundered from Spanish American cities and ships. She was under the command of William Brown, who had been an admiral in the Argentine Navy and was in command of the revolutionary fleet fighting the Spaniards. Her capture compromised the cautious line taken by the British between the Spanish and the revolutionaries. The Governor of Barbados ordered her release, but, when she had left Barbados, Stirling recaptured her and took her to Antigua as a prize. After long drawn-out proceedings, the High Court of the Admiralty ruled in Brown's favour, but he lost the frigate and her cargo. Stirling continued to receive demands for payment of damages for many years.
At the end of 1816 Stirling was commissioned to make a further detailed inspection of the conditions in Venezuela. From Güiria in the Paria Peninsula he sailed west to Caracas and the port of La Guaira and returned eastward by an inland route, in order to study the conditions in the interior of the country. In February 1817 he submitted a detailed report to the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral John Harvey. In it he blamed Spanish neglect for the devastation and decay he found in the interior. He described the insurgent "Patriots" as determined and disciplined, but the Loyalists were indisciplined and lazy. Following this, Stirling was given a number of covert missions in connection with Venezuela. The exact orders he received are not known, as the period from January to June 1817 has been removed from Brazen's log in Admiralty files. In May, the Executive Committee of the Patriots prepared a draft Constitution for the Republic of Venezuela which was given to Stirling for transmission to the West Indies Stations and thence to England. However this draft was subsequently rejected by Bolívar. Another source reports that a secret agreement, between the British and the Republicans, was signed later on board Brazen, in which the British would assist Bolívar in exchange for preferential trading rights when the Republic came into being.
In the second half of 1817 Stirling returned once again to patrolling the Caribbean with orders to seize any vessels suspected of piracy, orders which he carried out with alacrity because of the prize money. By June 1818 Brazen was in need of repair and he returned with her to England, where the ship was taken out of commission and Stirling received the dread news that he was to be placed on half pay. However, Admiral Harvey had sent the Lords of the Admiralty a letter strongly commending "the zeal and alacrity of this intelligent and excellent officer", which may have influenced their decision to promote him to Post Captain on 7 December 1818.