HMS ''Highflyer'' was a 21-gun wooden 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 ...
(later re-designated a corvette) of the
Royal Navy. She was built on the River Thames by C J Mare and launched on 13 August 1851. She spent twenty years in service, including action in the
Crimean War and the
Second Opium War
The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...
, before being broken up at
Portsmouth in May 1871.
Design
''Highflyer'' was ordered as a small wooden frigate to a design by the Surveyor's Department of the Admiralty on 25 April 1847; she and her sister
''Esk'' were re-designated as corvettes in 1854. In common with other screw corvettes of the time, she was envisaged as a steam auxiliary, intended to cruise under sail with the steam engine available for assistance. Commensurately she was provided with a
full square sailing rig. Her geared two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine, provided by Maudslay, Sons & Field, developed and drove a single screw.
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Construction
The design was approved in November 1849, and she was laid down in January 1850 in the Leamouth Wharf yard of C J Mare & Co. on the River Thames. She was launched on 18 August 1851 and commissioned at Woolwich on 15 March 1852 under Captain Henry James Matson.[
]
Service history
After commissioning, ''Highflyer'' completed fitting out on 10 April 1852. Initially she served on the North America and West Indies Station; her first commander, Captain Matson, died on 14 December 1852, and she was then placed under the command of Captain Edmund Heathcote. On 1 April 1853 command passed to Captain John Moore, under whom she sailed to join the Mediterranean Fleet
The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between t ...
after taking part in the 1853 Naval Review as part of the starboard division,.[
After recommissioning at Portsmouth under Captain Charles Shadwell on 1 August 1856, she sailed for the China Station, where she took part in the ]Second Opium War
The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...
. She was present at the capture of Canton in December 1857 and the Second Battle of Taku Forts on 25 June 1859.[ Midshipman John Fisher, later Baron Fisher of Kilverstone, served in her during the mid-1850s. Captain William Andrew James Heath took over command from Captain Shadwell on 2 January 1860, still in the Far East.
''Highflyer'' paid off at Portsmouth on 31 May 1861, but recommissioned again on 15 December 1864 under Captain Thomas Malcolm Sabine Pasley, for 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 ...
and East Indies Stations. There are references to service in the Persian Gulf - in January 1866, ''Highflyer'' bombarded a disputed fort at Al Zorah, in Ajman.
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Highflyer (1851)
Frigates of the Royal Navy
Victorian-era frigates of the United Kingdom
Corvettes of the Royal Navy
Victorian-era corvettes of the United Kingdom
1851 ships
Ships built in Leamouth