HMS ''Euryalus'' was a

fourth-rate In 1603 all English warships with a compliment of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers a six tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided i ...

wooden-hulled screw

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, with a steam engine that could make over . She was launched at

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

in 1853, was 212 feet long, displaced 3,125 tons and had a complement of 515 (this varied slightly as the Naval Standards varied). At the time of the

Bombardment of Kagoshima The Bombardment of Kagoshima, also known as the , was a military engagement fought between Britain and the Satsuma Domain in Kagoshima from 15 to 17 August 1863. The British were attempting to extract compensation and legal justice from ''daimyo ...

she carried 35 guns, not counting approximately 16

carronade A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main func ...

s. Seventeen of her guns were breech-loading

Armstrong gun An Armstrong gun was a uniquely designed type of Rifled breech-loader, rifled breech-loading field and heavy gun designed by William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, Sir William Armstrong and manufactured in England beginning in 1855 by the ...

s. She carried 230 tons of coal, and provisions for about three months, together with over 70 tons of shot and shell.

Service history

In December 1853, G. Ramsay was appointed captain. The ship served in the Baltic Campaign in 1854–1855. On 2 April 1855 she gave HMS ''Imperieuse'' a tow, after the ship had run aground; the previous day, off the Reefness Lighthouse (Røsnæs lighthouse) in

Kalundborg Kalundborg () is a Danish city with a population of 16,211 (1 January 2022),Suomenlinna Suomenlinna (; until 1918 Viapori, ), or Sveaborg (), is an inhabited sea fortress the Suomenlinna district is on eight islands of which six have been fortified; it is about 4 km southeast of the city center of Helsinki, the capital of Finla ...

, Finland) on 7–9 August 1855. Under the command of J. W. Tarleton, she served in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

in 1858. The same year Prince Alfred was appointed to the ship as a

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afr ...

. In 1860, the ship visited the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

. ''Euryalus'' arrived at

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

on 15 September 1862, the day following the

Namamugi Incident The , also known as the Kanagawa incident and Richardson affair, was a political crisis that occurred in the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the ''Bakumatsu'' on 14 September 1862. Charles Lennox Richardson, a British merchant, was killed by t ...

, a

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

assault on British nationals on the outskirts of the treaty port that led to a major breakdown in Anglo-Japanese relations. In an effort to enforce reparations from the

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1602 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of Kagoshima, ...

, ''Euryalus'' served as Admiral Sir

Augustus Kuper Admiral Sir Augustus Leopold Kuper (16 August 1809 – 28 October 1885) was a Royal Navy officer known for his commands in the far east. Naval career Kuper, whose ancestry was German, joined the navy in 1823 as a midshipman. On 20 February 183 ...

's flagship during the

bombardment of Kagoshima The Bombardment of Kagoshima, also known as the , was a military engagement fought between Britain and the Satsuma Domain in Kagoshima from 15 to 17 August 1863. The British were attempting to extract compensation and legal justice from ''daimyo ...

on 16 August 1863. During the bombardment of Kagoshima the Captain of ''Euryalus'',

John James Steven Josling John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

, was killed, as was his second-in-command, Commander Edward Wilmot, both decapitated by the same cannonball. Eight other members of the crew also died in the action, their names all commemorated on a memorial in the former British Consulate building in Yokohama. ''Euryalus'' also participated in the

bombardment of Shimonoseki The refers to a series of military engagements in 1863 and 1864, fought to control the Shimonoseki Straits of Japan by joint naval forces from Great Britain, France, the Netherlands and the United States, against the Japanese feudal domain of ...

in September 1864. The captain and commander of the ship at Shimonoseki was Captain John Hobhouse Inglis Alexander, who was severely wounded in the ankle as he led the assault on the batteries onshore. The ''Euryalus'' Captain of the Afterguard, Thomas Pride, was awarded a Victoria Cross for his actions during one of the stormings at Shimonoseki. It was at Shimonoseki that

Duncan Gordon Boyes Duncan Gordon Boyes VC (5 November 1846 – 26 January 1869) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. T ...

won his

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

at the age of 17.

Fate

''Euryalus'' was paid off at Portsmouth on 23 September 1865. She was broken up in 1867.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Denney, John. ''Respect and Consideration: Britain in Japan 1853–1868 and beyond''. Radiance Press (2011). *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Euryalus (1853), Hms Frigates of the Royal Navy 1853 ships Crimean War naval ships of the United Kingdom Ships built in Chatham