George Raper
Encyclopedia
Career
Raper was born to Henry and Catherine Raper in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
on 19 September 1769. On 20 August 1783 he joined the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
's HMS Rose as a captain's servant. After further service on HMS Racehorse, he joined HMS Sirius on 15 November 1786. The Sirius, commanded by Captain John Hunter
John Hunter (New South Wales)
Vice-Admiral John Hunter, RN was a British naval officer, explorer, naturalist and colonial administrator who succeeded Arthur Phillip as the second governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1795 to 1800.-Overview:...
, was the flagship of the First Fleet
First Fleet
The First Fleet is the name given to the eleven ships which sailed from Great Britain on 13 May 1787 with about 1,487 people, including 778 convicts , to establish the first European colony in Australia, in the region which Captain Cook had named New South Wales. The fleet was led by Captain ...
, which under Commodore Arthur Phillip
Arthur Phillip
Admiral Arthur Phillip RN was a British admiral and colonial administrator. Phillip was appointed Governor of New South Wales, the first European colony on the Australian continent, and was the founder of the settlement which is now the city of Sydney.-Early life and naval career:Arthur Phillip...
transported convicts from England to New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. On 30 September 1787, while the First Fleet was sailing from Rio de Janeiro to Capetown, George Raper became a midshipman
Midshipman
A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...
. Raper took his paint box with him, containing a larger set of paints than that of his captain, John Hunter, who was also an artist. Raper's charts, and his paintings of ports such as Teneriffe and Rio de Janeiro, were part of his evidence of competence for his promotion to midshipman. The First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay
Botany Bay
Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales, a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay...
in January 1788.
On 2 October 1788, the Sirius with Raper on board set sail from Port Jackson for the Dutch settlement of Cape Town, to get supplies for the starving Australian colony. Raper continued to paint; his watercolour of 'ice-islands' on this journey is held at the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
, London. In February 1789, the Sirius left Cape Town loaded with twelve months provisions for the ship’s company, six months flour for the whole settlement and other stores. Raper probably purchased paper in Cape Town; most of his paintings after this date are on Dutch paper.
On the return to Port Jackson, the Sirius suffered damage in a gale off the south coast of Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania...
. Ths ship was repaired at Careening Cove, now Mosman Bay on Sydney Harbour, from June to November 1789. During this period, Raper may have had leisure to continue his painting.
On 6 March 1790, the Sirius, with Raper on board, left Port Jackson for Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...
. On the 19th of March, the Sirius was wrecked while landing supplies at Norfolk Island. All the ship's company were saved and many of the supplies were salvaged. Raper saved his paint box. A number of the landscapes and natural history drawings that he made on the island have survived. He and the crew of the Sirius spent an enforced 11 months on the island, facing starvation and increasing distress at the failure of Governor Phillip to send a ship to collect them. Raper and the rest of the Sirius' company eventually returned to Sydney with HMS Supply, arriving there on 27 February 1791.
Back in England in 1792, the officers of the Sirius, including Raper, faced a court martial because of the loss of the ship. They were honoruably acquitted.
Raper then served on HMS Duke and HMS Victory. In June 1793 he received his commission as lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
and moved to HMS Speedy. In September that year he moved to the French ship Commerce de Marseille (1788)
French ship Commerce de Marseille (1788)
The Commerce de Marseille was a 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of the Océan class.Commerce de Marseille was offered to the King by the Commerce Chamber of Marseille. Built on state-of-the-art plans by Sané, she was dubbed the "finest ship of the century"...
, one of the ships of the French Navy which had defected to the British during the Siege of Toulon (1793); his presence is recorded in that ship's muster as 'Rapert ... Lieut't anglais'. Only two paintings that can be dated to his period of service in the Mediterranean are known to have survived - they are of a dolphin and a shark, and are held at the State Library of New South Wales
State Library of New South Wales
The State Library of New South Wales is a large public library owned by the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Macquarie Street, Sydney near Shakespeare Place...
.
In April 1795 Raper joined HMS Cumberland as Lieutenant. While serving on the Cumberland, he wrote his will. Dated 14 October 1795, it is a simple document compared to most 18th century wills. In it he asks that his painting case 'be delivered ...to my dearest and beloved Mother'.
In May 1796, Raper was given his first command, as Lieutenant Commander of the cutter HMS Expedition. He was despatched to Gibraltar and then the West Indies, bringing his ship through a hurricane near Barbados with much damage but no lives lost. A letter from Vice Admiral Sir Hyde Parker dated 2 October 1796 reported Raper's death: 'I am sorry to conclude my letter with informing their Lordships that Lieutenant Raper, commanding the Expedition Cutter, died on the 29th'. There are reports of multiple deaths from fever on Royal Navy vessels in the West Indies in the preceding months. The Admiral’s letter and other naval records of the time, however, make no comment on whether Raper succumbed to the fever or died from some other cause.
Paintings
On his travels from 1787 to 1792, George Raper drew watercolour paintings of birds, flowers and landscapes. Many of these drawings show species which are extinct today, like the Lord Howe SwamphenLord Howe Swamphen
The Lord Howe Swamphen or White Gallinule, Porphyrio albus, was a large bird in the family Rallidae endemic to Lord Howe Island, Australia. It was similar to the Purple Swamphen, but with shorter and more robust legs and toes. Its plumage was white, sometimes with a few blue feathers, and it was...
or the Lord Howe Pigeon from Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...
. He also sketched profiles of landscapes and topographical maps. These pictures can be seen in the First Fleet Artwork Collection in the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
in London and in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
In 2004, 56 long-lost watercolours were found at the estate of the Earl of Ducie
Earl of Ducie
Earl of Ducie is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1837 for Thomas Reynolds Moreton, 4th Baron Ducie. The family descends from Edward Moreton , who married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Ducie. Their son Matthew Ducie Moreton represented Gloucestershire in the House of...
, England. The National Library of Australia
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...
has bought this collection for an undisclosed sum from the Moreton family in England.