watercolourist and naval officer, was born on 17 February 1822, only child of Lieutenant John O’Reilly RN. Montague entered the Royal Naval College in February 1835 and exactly two years later joined HMS Pelorus as a volunteer. The ship was in Australian waters in 1838-39, from which period date two small watercolours by O’Reilly (now a midshipman). H.M.S. Pelorus in Company with H.M.S. Conway Running out of Sydney, Port Jackson (ML) is dated 7 July 1838.
While anchored off Port Essington (Northern Territory) delivering supplies, the Pelorus was wrecked in a hurricane that swept the area on 26 November 1839 and killed twelve of the crew. The survivors gathered at the settlement, then little more than a collection of prefabricated wooden buildings, which had also been extensively damaged. O’Reilly’s other known watercolour, The Habitation of the Crew of H.M.S. Pelorus, after She Had Been Wrecked … Nov. 26, 1839 (ML), shows Port Essington in its desolate state after the disaster struck, including ruined buildings and blasted trees. Appropriately bleak, the drawing is also extremely crude, O’Reilly denoting figures simply by blobs of red and blue paint.
In 1841 O’Reilly fought in the China Wars on board HMS Druid under Captain Henry Smith. Then he returned to Portsmouth where, having passed his examinations, he was appointed mate of the gunnery-ship Excellent . Having served off the African coast, he volunteered to remain at this unpopular post and was promoted lieutenant of the Lily . Later he served on board the Bellerophon .
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
