Around 300B.C. Alexander the Great was conquering much of the known world including a part of northern India. At the same time in India's south, a new dynasty, the Cholas, was establishing itself. It was a Tamil speaking Hindu kingdom that lasted well into the 13th Century. At it's height it encompassed some 3.6 million sq. km.
The world took a few turns and western traders established themselves on the Indian coast. In time the English East India Company controlled, and virtually ruled, the subcontinent. The Portugese, though, were some of the first on the scene. They translated the Tamil for Land Of The Cholas as CHOLAMANDALUM. To the English, further translation made this into the Coromandel Coast. Most recently we have become aware of this region when it was devastated by the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004.
The vessel we know as H.M.S.S. Coromandel was built in India from teak timber in Calcutta by the East India Company. They used it to transport their troops and at that stage it was known as the Cuvera. It became H.M.S Malabar in 1804 when it was bought up by the British Admiralty. It was refitted and mounted 56 guns but it never saw battle. In 1805 the final definitive battle of the Napoleonic Wars took place. After the peace, resulting from The Battle Of Trafalgar, there was a lesser requirement for vessels of this type. She was refitted as a store ship, the extra S in it's name coming from this store function. In 1815 it was renamed the H.M.S.S. Coromandel, the second of four vessels to be so named in the Navy.
She made only one visit to NZ. and that was in 1820. She had acted as a convict ship on her way from England. Convicts and their military guards were dropped of in both Hobart and Sydney. She spent nearly nine months in Coromandel Harbour, then known as Waiau. It took this long to gather a load of kauri spars for the Admiralty.
A passenger of the vessel, the Rev. Samuel Marsden, transfered the name of the vessel to the location, and eventually, the peninsula. If he had known he might well have considered the name to have "heathen" origins. Then the Coromandel could have been named after something more biblical, like Bethlehem! Marsden himself is a contradictory character. In N.S.W. he seemed to have every option well covered. He received land as a settler, bought more and ended up with 3,000 acres. This he worked with convict labour,he was also a judge and a member of the clergy. In Australia he was known as "The Flogging Parson" A description of one of his floggings, written it must be noted, by one of his religious opposites, is quite horrific. Three hundred lashes, with flesh and blood hitting spectators some 15m. distant! In NZ he has a more benign image and his name is associated with both religious and academic institutions to this day. It should be noted that he introduced the grapevine to NZ! On the debit side, members of the Church Missionary Society, who he represented, got mixed up in gun running. Not a very Christian message to give your converts! To his credit he did dismiss these contributors to the Maori Musket Wars. A recent biography describes him as having "an incurable psychological impairment". Even so he managed some incredible achievements.
As for H.M.S.S. Coromandel, she returned to the UK with her load of kauri spars. The quality was good but the cost was twice that of material sourced in Virginia. She did not return to NZ. Eventually She was converted into a prison hulk and acted in that role in Bermuda from 1828 to 1853 and was then broken up.
In England breaking up of naval vessels was a sort of recycling. Many an English pub has beams in it's structure that once sailed the seas. It would be great to think of some friendly hostelry in Bermuda, its patrons protected by timbers that once formed H.M.S.S. Coromandel.
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