In March 1889, the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Calliope was sent to Samoa to monitor the ongoing naval standoff between Germany and the United States of America. Both nations wanted control over Samoan territory and in the 1880s had stoked divisions in the country, which erupted in a civil war in 1886. In response, three American warships (USS Vandalia, USS Trenton and USS Nipsic) faced three German vessels (SMS Adler, SMS Eber and SMS Olga) in Apia harbour, waiting for an opportunity to formally occupy the country.
On 16 and 17 March, a tropical cyclone hit Samoa and devastated Apia. The American and German ships were wrecked, with only Calliope surviving due to the actions of the ship’s captain, Henry Kane (1843-1917) and his crew, who fought against the winds and led the ship into open water.
Calliope had originally been intended to serve the China Squadron but in late 1887 it was reassigned to the Australia Station, where it was reported in Sydney newspapers that ‘her captain, officers, and men are everywhere exceedingly popular’.
When news reached Australia of the dramatic events of the ship's battle against the cyclone, it became as a source of national pride. This book, published in April 1889, shows a sense of this pride. It was sent to Queen Victoria by the compiler, John S Shenston in June 1889 and contains reprints of various articles from Sydney newspapers concerning the voyage of Calliope and the Apia cyclone combined with patriotic verses extoling the virtues of the Royal Navy and its sailors. 
Following Calliope’s retirement in 1907, the ship travelled to north-east England where it served as a drill ship on the River Tyne at Newcastle for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. While it was sold for scrap in 1951, the establishment, which moved ashore to Gateshead in 1968, has retained the name HMS Calliope.