HMS Buffalo was a storeship of the Royal Navy, originally built and launched at Sulkea, opposite Calcutta, in 1813 as the merchant vessel Hindostan.

[5] In August 1813, after a six-month maiden voyage, Hindostan arrived in the East India Dock, London to discharge and was offered for sale.

[5] She had left Bengal on 18 February, passed the Point de Galle on 13 March, stopped at St Helena on 9 June, and arrived at The Downs on 10 August.

[10] Sadler received gifts from the local Maori chief of Tītore in the Bay of Islands during one of HMS Buffalo's trips.

Other passengers on HMS Buffalo to South Australia in 1836 included: James Cock, Robert Cock (James father), William Ferguson, Osmond Gilles, Charles Beaumont Howard, Young Bingham Hutchinson, and brothers Giles E. Strangways, Thomas Bewes Strangways and Frank Potts (winemaker).

[citation needed][citation needed] Charles Morgan Lewis, who had captained the schooner Isabella on her mission to rescue survivors of Charles Eaton from the Torres Strait Islands, is recorded as having travelled as a passenger on Buffalo with the young orphan William D'Oyly, who had survived the wreck and subsequent massacre, back to London from Sydney Cove, departing on 13 May 1838.

[citation needed] Buffalo was anchored in Mercury Bay off Whitianga and loaded with Kauri spars when a storm on 28 July 1840 wrecked her.

[17] A team of maritime archaeologists and volunteer divers led by the South Australian Government's State Heritage Branch relocated the wreck site in April 1986.

[23] In 2018, materials from the wreck site held in the Mercury Bay Museum underwent archaeological recording and contributed to understanding how the vessel was constructed.

The archaeologists, in discussion with the Mercury Bay Museum, identified the wreck site was at risk of rapid degradation while presenting an opportunity to complete a comprehensive archaeological survey.

Preliminary results revealed the types of resources used in the construction of an early nineteenth century British colonial vessel.

[35][36] The local community is encouraged to contact the museum whenever they find a piece so the material can be professionally recorded and considered for conservation treatment.

The HMS Buffalo shipwreck is a recorded archaeological site (T11/562) and is protected under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014.

[39] As a tribute, a static replica of Buffalo was built in 1980 on the shore of the Patawalonga River at Glenelg, a suburb of Adelaide, as a restaurant and museum.

[42] This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales Licence, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project.