 The engineer of Calliope, Henry George Bourke, was specially promoted from staff engineer to fleet engineer on 28 May 1889, "for his services in Her Majesty's ship' Calliope, 'during the recent hurricane at Samoa." He attributed his success to the superior properties of West Coast coal from New Zealand used to fire the ship's boilers; this statement attracted the custom of the British Admiralty when fuelling its ships in those waters.
