page_title: HMAS Protector (1884)
section_title: Boxer Rebellion
hierarchical_section_title: HMAS Protector (1884) / Operational history / Boxer Rebellion
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of South Australian colonial gunboat HMCS Protector. AWM Caption: PORT ADELAIDE, SA. c 1900. PORT SIDE VIEW OF THE GUNBOAT HMCS PROTECTOR OF THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN NAVY. SHE SERVED IN CHINA DURING THE BOXER REBELLION.
context_page_description: HMCS Protector was a large flat-iron gunboat commissioned and purchased by the South Australian government in 1884, for the purpose of defending the local coastline against possible attacks in the aftermath of the 'Russian scare', of the 1870s. She arrived in Adelaide in September 1884 and subsequently served in the Boxer Rebellion, World War I and World War II.
  During July 1943, Protector was requisitioned for war service by the U.S. Army. On the way to New Guinea and off Gladstone, she was damaged in a collision with a tug and abandoned. The hull was subsequently taken to Heron Island off the Queensland coast and later sunk for use as a breakwater. Her rusting remains are still visible to this day.
context_section_description: Around the turn of the 20th century, all Australian colonies were involved in the Boer War in South Africa, when a call from Britain came to help defeat the Chinese secret society known as the Boxers. South Australia responded by offering Protector and her crew, which varied in number between 85 and 96.
  Protector was to join an international force composed of sailors, marines, and soldiers from Britain, France, Italy, the United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary—the so-called Eight-Nation Alliance—to protect the lives of foreign nationals and to defend their economic interests. The British asked that the ship be commanded and manned by British personnel, and although the South Australian government did not agree to the crewing request, commanding officer Chapman James Clare was temporarily demoted to second in command, with William Rooke Creswell, a British officer and Commandant of the Queensland Maritime Defence Force installed as the ship's captain. Protector sailed from Adelaide, flying the White Ensign, on 6 August 1900. She was temporarily commissioned as HMS Protector for legal reasons, and arrived at Hong Kong on 11 September 1900. A week later, she departed for Shanghai.
  In Chinese waters, the expected use of shallow draught vessels such as Protector was not called for, but she performed useful work as a survey vessel and in carrying despatches in the Gulf of Pechili. By the beginning of November, the Admiralty had decided it could dispense with her services, and she was released to return to Adelaide on 2 November 1900. During her return voyage, Protector participated in the ceremonies inaugurating the Australian Commonwealth in Sydney on 1 January 1901.
caption: Protector circa 1901
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