South American Mission Society

[2] The name of the organisation was changed after the death of Captain Gardiner, who died of starvation in 1851 on Picton Island in South America, waiting for a supply ship from England.

After again failing to engage with the Fuegians, and beset by planning failures and mishaps (such as leaving all their shot behind), by March 1851 they had fled the island, sailing east along the Beagle Channel to Spaniard Harbour, a bay at the mouth of Cooks River.

The keel was laid down at Kelly's yards, Dartmouth, on 1 November 1853 and she was launched as the Allen Gardiner on 11 July 1854: a vessel of 89 tons register on dimensions of 64.0 x 17.2 x 10.6 ft. She sailed from Bristol on 24 October 1854, under the command of Captain William Parker Snow.

The mission suffered many difficulties, due at least in part to disagreements Captain Snow had with Phillips, his crew, and Governor George Rennie, who did not support the Society's intention to encourage Tierra del Fuegians to leave their own islands to be taught at Cranmer.

Captain Snow offered to take Phillips on a reconnaissance voyage to Tierra del Fuego in October 1855, and they made amicable contacts with natives at several locations culminating in the discovery of Jemmy Button at Wulaia on 1 November.

George Packenham Despard managed to convince Jemmy Button, one of his wives and three children to visit Cranmer, and after many months there they were returned to Wulaia in December 1858.

Four days later, while holding a Sunday service in a small chapel built at the settlement, Garland Phillips and all but one of the ship's crew were clubbed to death in a general massacre.

His adopted son Thomas Bridges remained at Cranmer, where he was joined by Despard's replacement, former Society Secretary the Reverend Waite Hockin Stirling (1829–1923).

In 1867 a mission settlement was built on Tierra del Fuego itself and on 21 December 1869 Waite Stirling was proclaimed Bishop of the Falkland Islands at Westminster Abbey, finally legitimising the South American Missionary Society under the auspices of the Church of England.

Stirling held the post for 32 years, during which time, unfortunately, a considerable proportion of the native population of Tierra del Fuego was massacred by gold miners and ranchers.

This last Allen Gardiner's engine was removed in 1887, and she worked as a sailing vessel until being sold in 1896, by which time regular steamship services operated between the Falkland Islands and Tierra del Fuego.