HMS Sandfly (1872)

HMS Sandfly was a schooner of the Royal Navy, built by John Cuthbert, Millers Point, New South Wales and launched on 5 December 1872. She commenced service on the Australia Station at Sydney in 1873 for anti-blackbirding operations in the South Pacific. She also undertook hydrographic surveys in the Solomon Islands and in New Guinea. Lieutenant Bower and five crew were massacred by natives on the island of Mandoliana in October 1880, with a punitive mission undetaken afterwards. She was paid off in 1883 and sold to Samoa.