HMS ''Maeander'' was a

sailing 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 British

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 ...

. Her service included the suppression of piracy, the Russian War, and support for the suppression of slavery with 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 ...

. She was wrecked in a gale in 1870.

Career

''Maeander'' was launched at

Chatham Dockyard Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham (at its most extensive, in the early 20th century, ...

on 5 May 1840. From 1 November 1847 to 1851 her captain was

Henry Keppel Admiral of the Fleet The Honourable Sir Henry Keppel (14 June 1809 – 17 January 1904) was a Royal Navy officer. His first command was largely spent off the coast of Spain, which was then in the midst of the First Carlist War. As commanding off ...

. ''Maeander'' served in the East Indies, cooperating with

James Brooke Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak (29 April 1803 – 11 June 1868), was a British soldier and adventurer who founded the Raj of Sarawak in Borneo. He ruled as the first White Rajah of Sarawak from 1841 until his death in 1868. Brooke was bor ...

in the suppression of piracy. Next, in September 1849 she sailed from Singapore via

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

for Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific coast of America; United States Army Lieutenant George H. Derby, in his "Report of the Expedition of the U.S. Transport Invincible" notes that Keppel with the ''Maeander'' was in the Mexican port of

Guaymas Guaymas () is a city in Guaymas Municipality, in the southwest part of the state of Sonora, in northwestern Mexico. The city is south of the state capital of Hermosillo, and from the U.S. border. The municipality is located on the Gulf of Cali ...

on 5 February 1851. After twelve months on the Valparaiso station, ''Maeander'' then returned to Britain with $860,000 in bullion via the Straits of Magellan. (At the time she was thought to have been the largest vessel to have passed through the straits.) She was in the straits for over nine days in May 1851, anchoring every night because of the difficulty of the passage). On 14 July 1852 Captain Charles Talbot took command of ''Maeander''. On 30 May 1854 Captain Thomas Baillie took command. She served in the

White Sea The White Sea (russian: Белое море, ''Béloye móre''; Karelian and fi, Vienanmeri, lit. Dvina Sea; yrk, Сэрако ямʼ, ''Serako yam'') is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is su ...

in 1855 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 ...

KEPPEL (1853) pg145 VOLCANIC MOUNTAIN, COMBA ISLAND

On 2 December 1856,

James Robert Drummond Admiral Sir James Robert Drummond (15 September 1812 – 7 October 1895) was a Royal Navy officer who commanded several ships in the Black Sea Fleet during the Crimean War and who commanded the Mediterranean Fleet from 1874 to 1877 before going o ...

was appointed captain of ''Maeander'', for coast guard service.

George Fowler Hastings Vice-Admiral George Fowler Hastings CB (28 November 1814 – 21 March 1876) was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the First Opium War and the Crimean War. In a naval career spanning over 50 years Hastings saw service across t ...

succeeded Drummond. In September 1857 an advertisement seeking a 'seaman schoolmaster' to instruct the boys of the ''Maeander'' in the 3Rs. was placed in the name of 'Captain the Hon. G F Hastings CB'. Hastings was appointed superintendent of Haslar Hospital in January 1858. In 1859 Commander Malcolm MacGregor assumed command of ''Maeander''. In 1860 her armament was reduced to ten guns as part of her conversion into a storeship. She then joined the West Africa Squadron at Ascension Island as a replacement for ''Tortoise''. From 1 November 1859 to July 1861 ''Maeander'' was under the command of Captain

William Farquharson Burnett Commodore William Farquharson Burnett, (1815 – 7 February 1863) was a senior officer in the Royal Navy. Naval career Burnett was appointed a lieutenant in the Royal Navy in 1838. Promoted to captain in 1854, he commanded ''Tortoise'' at ...

. On 23 February 1861 Captain Frederick Lamport Barnard took command. From 24 December 1864 to January 1866 her commander was Captain Joseph Grant Bickford.

Fate

In July 1870 ''Maeander'' was wrecked in a gale in the

South Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

off Ascension Island. Her remains are at a depth of 14 metres (46 feet) in position , bows on to the shore. She lies on her

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

side and has opened up.

Timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

copper sheathing Copper sheathing is the practice of protecting the under-water hull of a ship or boat from the corrosive effects of salt water and biofouling through the use of copper plates affixed to the outside of the hull. It was pioneered and developed by ...

, knees supporting her gun deck, and her

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder. ...

have been located.

Memorials

A memorial tablet to the men of ''Maeander'' killed between 1848-51 can be seen at

St Ann's Church, HMNB Portsmouth St Ann's Church is an Anglican chapel within His Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth. It is regarded as the spiritual home of the Royal Navy, and contains numerous memorials to men lost at sea. The original church was built in 1704, on the site of ...

. A memorial tablet to the Royal Marines from HMS ''Maeander'' who died of fever in

Labuan Labuan (), officially the Federal Territory of Labuan ( ms, Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan), is a Federal Territory of Malaysia. Its territory includes and six smaller islands, off the coast of the state of Sabah in East Malaysia. Labuan's capit ...

(on

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

) between 14 June and 29 November 1848 can be found in the Old Navy Cemetery within the Botanical Gardens in Labuan,

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maeander (1840) 1840 ships Ships built in Chatham Seringapatam-class frigate Ships of the West Africa Squadron Coal hulks Maritime incidents in July 1870