Author Topic: HMS Ringarooma  (Read 5171 times)

Offline 64aussie

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 39
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
HMS Ringarooma
« on: Saturday 16 June 12 12:17 BST (UK) »
Does anyone have any information in connection with the re-naming of the HMS Psyche, renamed the HMS Ringarooma in 1890.  I am interested in the origin of the name Ringarooma.  I have found it to be associated with two people named Scott and am wondering if the name is connected with the family as it is an unusual name.  Scott of the Antarctic's (Robert Falcon Scott) ship was escorted by the HMS Ringarooma when he left New Zealand for the Antarctic in 1901.  The Ringarooma was then part of the small fleet of ships sent out from England to protect the shores of Australia.  There is a rural area in Tasmania which was settled very early on which is also named Ringarooma and one of the first surveyors in the area was James Scott, who named and settled in the area.  Any information most appreciated.

Offline km1971

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 9,343
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: HMS Ringarooma
« Reply #1 on: Saturday 16 June 12 15:04 BST (UK) »
There was a merchant ship called Ringarooma, of Dunedin (Scotland). Information is from 1881.

Ken

Offline Tyrannosaurus

  • RootsChat Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 193
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: HMS Ringarooma
« Reply #2 on: Saturday 16 June 12 16:17 BST (UK) »
The word doesn’t seem to have appeared in the UK newspapers until 1875, and that was at the launching at Whiteinch, of the Ringarooma, a splendid screw steamer, built for Messrs M’Meckan, Blackwood & Co. Melbourne.

In the Australian newspapers it first appears in the Hobart Town Courier, Saturday, 22 January, 1831. http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/4205740?searchTerm=ringarooma&searchLimits=l-decade=183|||l-year=1831

“The chief of the Ringarooma or Cape Portland tribe of Blacks that is now on Swan island, wears his hair in long ringlets, which he dresses regularly every morning with a mixture of red ochre and opossum fat, pulling and twining them up into separate locks, until they hang down upon his shoulders.”       

According to this horse owner Ringarooma means ‘two rivers crossing’. http://kosciusko.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=brumbies&action=print&thread=3282

More than likely it’s an Aboriginal word.

Rex

Offline Tyrannosaurus

  • RootsChat Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 193
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: HMS Ringarooma
« Reply #3 on: Sunday 17 June 12 10:44 BST (UK) »
The arrival of the Ringarooma, along with the rest of the fleet, in Brisbane, in 1891, resulted in a number of letters to the Brisbane Courier about the meaning of the name.

31 August 1891 (near bottom column 4)
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0noy/

1 September 1891(bottom of column)
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0noz/

11 September 1891
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0np0/

12 September 1891
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0np1/

Rex


Online GrahamSimons

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 3,062
    • View Profile
Re: HMS Ringarooma
« Reply #4 on: Sunday 17 June 12 11:01 BST (UK) »
Interesting: HMS Ringarooma's ship's logs are at the National Archives, starting 3rd February 1891.

I can't instantly find anything on HMS Psyche in the years leading up to 1891.

Might be worth looking at the Navy Lists for these years as they show the ship, her officers and where she was stationed, so you could check both vessels.
Simons Barrett Jaffray Waugh Langdale Heugh Meade Garnsey Evans Vazie Mountcure Glascodine Parish Peard Smart Dobbie Sinclair....
in Stirlingshire, Roxburghshire; Bucks; Devon; Somerset; Northumberland; Carmarthenshire; Glamorgan

Offline 64aussie

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 39
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: HMS Ringarooma
« Reply #5 on: Tuesday 19 June 12 14:06 BST (UK) »
Thank you to everyone who replied to my query concerning the "Ringarooma", and it's possible connection with the Scott family.  As usual a request for answers leads to more questions - a merchant ship called Ringarooma was built in Scotland - the surveyor who named the rural area of Ringarooma was from Scotland - and again the "Ringarooma" sailed from New Zealand to accompany Scott on his trip to The Antarctic, so here is a connection with New Zealand, which has been suggested as the source of the name.  I will follow up all of your leads, and who knows maybe one day I will solve this little puzzle.  Thanks again to everyone for your help and looking forward to any further information that anyone might come across.
Cheers to all

Offline Tyrannosaurus

  • RootsChat Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 193
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: HMS Ringarooma
« Reply #6 on: Wednesday 20 June 12 06:50 BST (UK) »

Offline Rooma

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 2
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: HMS Ringarooma
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 02 June 16 10:56 BST (UK) »
I too have an interest in the origins of the name Ringarooma and have been down the path of asking the National Library of NZ and Aust National Maritime museum as to the origins of the name but unfortunately without success. Emailing the information centre of Ringaroom TAS was the catalyst in contacting the NZ and Aust library/ museum given suggestions of it being of Aboriginal or NZ origin, particularly as the namesake trading ship travelled from NZ to Aus. Googling will also tell you HMS Ringarooma was also part of the auxiliary squad - forerunner to the RAN.
What intrigues me is there is a Ringaroom Ave in SA, a Ringarooma Circuit in NSW, Ringarooma Circle ACT and Ringaroom Way in WA. 
There is NaROOMA in NSW whose name is an aboriginal word for clear blue waters.
PaRINGA, a town on the Murray in SA is meant to mean "land near the river" or "whirlpool". There is also a Lake Parings in NZ and strangely enough a place in California.
There are also AldINGA in SA where it is thought that it means" plenty of water". ( water in this instance must mean the sea as there are not any real rivers about).
So all I can surmise is that it is must indeed be an aboriginal name with some link to "water" but that it's name as a link to its mainland namesakes suggest it being named to the ship or the Tas township given those locations on the mainland are devoid of being close to any bodies of water. Now all my research was done about 12 years ago when I moved into a "street" with the name of Ringarooma. Perhaps others have been able to find out further info on the origins of the name Ringarooma

Offline Christine Simm

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 4
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: HMS Ringarooma
« Reply #8 on: Monday 15 July 19 09:31 BST (UK) »
Details of HMS Ringarooma

Name:   HMS Psyche
Builder:   J & G Thomson, Glasgow

Launched:   10 December 1889
Renamed:   Ringarooma (1890)
Fate:   Sold in May 1906 for breaking up
General characteristics
Class and type:   Pearl-class cruiser

Displacement:   2,575 tons
Length:   278 ft (85 m) oa
256 ft (78 m) pp

Beam:   41 ft (12 m)
Draught:   15 ft 6 in (4.72 m)
Installed power:   4 × double-ended cylindrical boilers
7,500 ihp (5,600 kW) on forced draught

Propulsion:   2 × 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines
2 screws
Speed:   19 knots (35 km/h)

Complement:   217
Armament:   8 × QF 4.7 inch (120 mm) guns
8 × 3-pounder guns
4 × machine guns
2 × 14-inch (356 mm) torpedo tubes

Armour:   Deck: 1–2 in (25–51 mm)
Gunshields: 2 in (51 mm)
Conning tower: 3 in (76 mm)

HMS Ringarooma was a Pearl-class cruiser of the Royal Navy, originally named HMS Psyche, built by J & G Thomson, Glasgow and launched on 10 December 1889. Renamed on 2 April 1890, as Ringarooma as part of the Auxiliary Squadron of the Australia Station. She arrived in Sydney with the squadron on 5 September 1891. She was damaged after running aground on a reef at Makelula Island, New Hebrides on 31 August 1894 and was pulled off by the French cruiser Duchaffault. Between 1897 and 1900 she was in reserve at Sydney. On 15 February Captain Frederick St. George Rich was appointed in command. She left the Australia Station on 22 August 1904. She was sold for £8500 in May 1906 to Forth Shipbreaking Company for breaking up.