HMS Falcon was a 17-gun

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 ...

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

launched in 1854. She served in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

and then in North America, West Africa and Australia. She was sold for breaking in 1869.

Construction

Ordered on 2 April 1853, she was laid down in November the same year and launched on 10 August 1854 at

Plymouth Dockyard His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth) and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Ro ...

.Bastock, pp.44-45.

Crimean War

She served in the

during the

and participated in the blockade off the coast of

Courland Courland (; lv, Kurzeme; liv, Kurāmō; German and Scandinavian languages: ''Kurland''; la, Curonia/; russian: Курляндия; Estonian: ''Kuramaa''; lt, Kuršas; pl, Kurlandia) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia. ...

North America station

She was then transferred to the

North America and West Indies Station The North America and West Indies Station was a formation or command of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy stationed in North American waters from 1745 to 1956. The North American Station was separate from the Jamaica Station until 1830 when the t ...

, where she served until 1857.

West Africa

She was refitted in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

in 1858, On 4 June 1859, she assisted in rescuing survivors from the troopship ''Eastern Monarch'', which had suffered an onboard explosion, caught fire and sank off

Spithead Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast. It receives its name from the Spit, a sandbank stretching south from the Hampshire ...

. ''Falcon'' then served as part of the

West Africa Squadron The West Africa Squadron, also known as the Preventative Squadron, was a squadron of the British Royal Navy whose goal was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. Formed in 1808 after the British Parliame ...

off

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

from 1859 to 1862. In 1861,1861 UK Census. class:RG9. piece:4440. folio=41. p. 1.
/ref> ''Falcon'' was stationed off Jenkins Town, on the River Sherbro,

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

, Commander#Royal Navy, commander

Algernon Heneage Admiral Sir Algernon Charles Fieschi Heneage (19 March 1833 – 10 June 1915) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, The Nore. Dubbed "Pompo," he was known for his immaculate dress and his white-glove inspections of the ...

. Her ship's company participated in the attack on the king of Baddiboo on the

Gambia River The Gambia River (formerly known as the River Gambra) is a major river in West Africa, running from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea westward through Senegal and The Gambia to the Atlantic Ocean at the city of Banjul. It is navigable f ...

, and the ship bombarded Saba and captured the town on 21 February 1862. The ship's crew suffered 6 killed and 15 wounded.

Australia station

Refitted again in Portsmouth during 1863 before spending the rest of her active life on the

Australia Station The Australia Station was the British, and later Australian, naval command responsible for the waters around the Australian continent.Dennis et al. 2008, p.53. Australia Station was under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station, ...

. During this period she took part in the

New Zealand Wars The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. They were previously commonly referred to as the Land Wars or the M ...

. On 28 April 1864 she participated in the bombardment of Tai Rawhiti. The next day some of her crew took part in the attack on

Gate Pā Gate Pa or Gate Pā is a suburb of Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island. It is the location of the Battle of Gate Pā in the 1864 Tauranga campaign of the New Zealand Wars. Demographics Gate Pa covers and had a ...

as part of the Naval Brigade. She left the Australia Station in November 1867 for England.

Fate

She paid off at

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...

on 3 October 1868 and was sold on 27 September 1869 to C. Marshall for £2046 for breaking at Plymouth.

Citations

References

*Bastock, John (1988), ''Ships on the Australia Station'', Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Falcon (1858) 1854 ships Ships built in Plymouth, Devon Cruizer-class sloops Victorian-era sloops of the United Kingdom