While the stamp has the inscription HMS NELSON, Port Moresby 1884, the vessel depict on the stamp definitely is not the HMS NELSON, the stamp depict a vessel with a clipper bow and only one funnel, looks schooner rigged, while HMS NELSON did have a straight bow and two funnels and was barque rigged, I have looked for other ships of the Royal Navy around that time in this area, and the vessel depict on the stamp looks more like the HMS ALERT (or one of her five sisters,) a screw sloop, who was on the Australian Station from 1880 till 1882.
Built as an iron hulled armoured cruiser by Elder & Co., Glasgow for the Royal Navy.
02 November 1874 keel laid down.
04 November 1876 launched under the name HMS NELSON, one sister the HMS NORTHAMPTON.
Displacement 7.475 tons, dim. 87.78 x 18.28 x 7.46m. (mean draught).
Powered by two sets of 3-cyl. vertical inverted compound steam engines; manufactured by the shipbuilder, 6.624 ihp, speed 14 knots. Twin screws. Coal capacity 1150 ton.
Range by a speed of 10½ mile, 5000 mile.
Armament 4 – 25.4 each 18 ton, 8 – 22.8cm each 12 ton guns (RML). 6 – 20pdrs. and 16 MG or boat guns.
Carried also four torpedo tubes.
Crew 560. Building cost £411.300 .
She was the latest vessel in the Royal Navy with their main armament on the broadside and in the tweendecks.
The hull was sheathed with zinc, and carried on the stem a detachable V-shaped ram, intended only for wartime, but the ram was not removed and most of her career she carried it.
Barque rigged, could carry 2.300m² sail. She carried two 18.28m. long torpedo boats accommodated in crutches abreast the funnels.
Commissioned in Chatham as flagship for the Australian Station, and sailed for this station.
21 January 1892 the flag of Commodore James E. Erskine was hoisted.
06 November 1884 Commodore Erskine on board the HMS NELSON proclaimed the British New Guinea a ‘Protectorate’
When in 1884 the British Admiralty decided to appoint a Rear Admiral to the Australian Station, George Tryon was appointed on 12 November 1884, and he hoisted his flag on the NELSON on 22 January 1885. (Tryon is still know by his decision on 22 June 1893 in the Mediterranean, when he ordered the two lines of battleships under his command to reverse their course on a 180 degree inward turn, where in his flagship the HMS VICTORIA was rammed and sunk by the HMS CAMPERDOWN. Tryon, 22 officers and 336 ratings went down with the ship.)
01 January 1887 he was relieved by Rear-Admiral Henry Fairfax and his flag was hoisted on the NELSON till she sailed to the U.K.
As flagship of the Australian Station the NELSON made many cruises in the Pacific waters, and showing the flag around ports in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands.
03 September 1888 she sailed for the last time from Sydney homeward bound and arrived at Chatham in January 1889.
Decommissioned and refitted what took almost three years, her armament was modified, her sailing rig almost completely removed and a fighting top added to both the fore and mizzen mast.
After her refit she carried 4 – 10 inch, 8 – 9 inch, 6 – 24pdrs and 3 – 9pdr. guns.
October 1891 became guardship at Portsmouth.
November 1894 in reserve.
When in reserve she made occasional a trooping voyage to Malta until 1901.
Thereafter reduced to dockyard reserve and in December 1901 she was hulked and became a trainingship for stokers.
July 1910 sold for £14.500 to shipbreakers in the Netherlands.
The Papua stamp issued in 1934 shows the quarterdeck of this 1st class armored cruiser on 6 November 1884, when Commodore James Erskine, senior officer of the Australian station, proclaimed a British protectorate over the SE part of New Guinea, now called Papua New Guinea.
Papua 1934 2d SG147 and 5d SG149, scott 111 and 113.
Papua New Guinea 1984 10t sg487, scott ?
Source: Ships on the Australian Station by John Bastock. Log Book.