HMS Castor

HMS Castor (1832)

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Name	Castor (1832)	Explanation
Type	Fifth rate
Launched	2 May 1832
Hull	Wooden
Propulsion	Sail
Builders measure	1293 tons
Displacement	1808 tons
Guns	26
Fate	1902
Class
Ships book
Note	1860 t.s.
Snippets concerning this vessels career
Date	Event
2 May 1832 - September 1832	Commanded by Captain Richard Grant, Chatham
September 1832 - November 1836	Commanded by Captain Lord John Hay, frigate (Present at blockade of Dutch ports in "Belgian question" in Dec. Later as Commodore of British fleet intervening in Spanish civil war)
3 April 1837 - 31 July 1841	Commanded (until paying off at Sheerness) by Captain Edward Collier, Mediterranean (including operations on the coast of Syria in 1840)
28 April 1843 - 16 November 1847	Commanded (from commissioning at Chatham until paying off at Chatham) by Captain Charles Graham, East Indies
7 May 1849 - 12 February 1853	Commanded (from commissioning at Chatham until paying off at Chatham) by Commodore Christopher Wyvill, Cape of Good Hope
18 June 1855 - 1 January 1856	Commanded (from commissioning at Chatham) by Lieutenant commander Charles Octavius Wood, to the Cape of Good Hope to serve as Comodore's flagship
1 January 1856 - 1 April 1857	Commanded by Commodore Henry Dundas Trotter, Commander-in-chief, Cape of Good Hope
10 April 1857 - 2 August 1858	Commanded (until paying off at Chatham) by Captain Henry Lyster, flagship of Rear-Admiral Frederick William Grey, Cape of Good Hope
16 January 1860 - 19 January 1864	Commanded by Commander John Palmer, Royal Naval Reserve training ship, Shields
11 July 1867 - 7 May 1869	Commanded by Commander Charles Gudgeon Nelson, Royal Naval Reserve drill ship, North Shields
27 March 1876 - 6 March 1877	Commanded by Commander Arthur Cecil Curtis, Royal Naval Reserve drill ship, North Shields
*Extracts from the Times* newspaper**
Date	Extract
Fr 31 December 1841	Her Majesty's ship Warspite, 50, Captain Lord John Hay, is now nearly ready to undertake the distinguished duty which has been assigned to her. Her decorations are not of that nature which appertain to a yacht, but only extend to placing her at once in that high state of order, comfort, and cleanliness which characterizes a crack English man-of-war, She is, without exception, the finest frigate in the service: is high between decks, has great breadth of beam, and her length is in proportion to her breadth. She has not a single carronade on board, but mounts 52 guns of large calibre, 12 of which are long sixty-eights, and. the remaining 40 long thirty-two-pounders. Of the sixty-eights, 6 are on the mam deck, and 6 on the upper. Those on the main deck are placed amidships, 3 on each side, but those on the upper deck are distributed one on each side of the forecastle, one on each of the gangways, and one on each side the quarter deck, quite aft. It is rumoured that His Majesty the King of Prussia intends to land at Portsmouth. Though this is not at all improbable, yet neither the place where His Majesty will embark, nor that where he will land, is at present known, nor what vessels will be despatched with the Warspite to convey him, although there is no question that one or more steamers will accompany her. When Her Majesty the Queen Dowager went abroad, the Castor frigate, commanded then by the present Captain of the Warspite, and the Royal George yacht, attended by two steamers, were the vessels employed to convey Her Majesty. who, upon that occasion, landed at Helvoetsluys.
Sa 15 May 1847	PORTSMOUTH, May 14. The Driver steam stoop, Commander C.O. Hayes, arrived at Spithead this afternoon from New Zealand and Rio, having left the former place on the 28th of January and the latter on the 27th of March. The Driver was commissioned on the 30th of August, 1841, since which period she has been employed on the East India and China station, until September, 1845, when she was ordered to New Zealand, having been employed on that station upwards of 12 months, performing most valuable and important services. She has been in commission longer than any vessel since the peace, surveying vessels perhaps excepted, and is the first steam vessel that has circumnavigated the globe. She sailed from Auckland, New Zealand, on the afternoon of the 28th of January, having been relieved by the Inflexible steam sloop, Commander Hoseason, on the 25th. She arrived off the entrance of the Straits of Magellan on the 2d of March, but thick hazy weather prevented her attempting them, so she bore up and steamed round Cape Horn, being only 35 days from New Zealand. She arrived at Rio on the 22d of March, at which time the Satellite, 18, Commander Rowley, was beating out round to the river Plate. The Curaçoa, 24, Captain Broughton, was at anchor, expecting relief daily. The Driver completed coal and water, and sailed from Rio on the 27th of March. During her passage home she had four deaths, namely, Mr. J.G. Nops, late master of the Racehorse, on the 12th of February; Mr. Goodman, late carpenter of the Racehorse, on the 5th of March, from the bursting of a blood vessel; James Bothway, stoker of the Driver, found dead under his mess table on the afternoon of the 9th of April, of apoplexy; James Croker, seaman of the Driver, on the 1st of April, from locked jaw, occasioned by a wound received in the foot when assisting in turning the wheel of the engine whilst at Rio. The Driver has lost 32 men by death and 47 by invaliding during the period of her commission; many of the latter died on their passage home from China. She has gone over a distance of 75,696 miles. Commander Maxwell Falcon, late first lieutenant of the Castor, came home passenger. She brings home invalids from the Castor, 26, Captain Graham; Calliope, 26, Captain Stanley; Racehorse,18, Commander Sotheby ; and the Inflexible. At the time of her departure the Calliope and Racehorse were at Wellington, the Castor and Inflexible at Auckland. The only officers who left England in the Driver and returned in her are — the first lieutenant, master, surgeon, and purser. She came into harbour this evening to replenish fuel, prior to going to the eastward to be paid off.
Fr 9 July 1847	The following ships have served the usual period of commission (three years); many have exceeded that term, and are on their way home to be paid off or are ordered to return as soon as relieved:— EAST INDIA STATION. The Agincourt, 72, Captain Johnstone, flag of Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, Commander-in-Chief; having been relieved by the Vernon, 50, Captain Fitzgerald, Rear-Admiral Inglefield. The Fox, 42, Commodore Sir Henry Blackwood. The Castor, 36, Captain Graham. The Iris, 26, Captain Mundy. The Pilot, 16, Commander Wilson. The Wolf, 16, Commander Vansittart. The Spiteful steam sloop, Commander Sir W. Hoste, Bart. MEDITERRANEAN. The Albion, 90, Captain Fremantle. The America, 50, Captain Sir T. Maitland. The Flamer steam sloop, Lieutenant-Commander Lavie. The Hecla steam sloop, Commander Starmer. The Virago steam sloop, Commander Lunn. PACIFIC STATION. The Collingwood, 80, Captain Smart, flag of Rear-Admiral Sir George Seymour, Commander-in-Chief. The Fisgard, 42, Captain Duntze. The Modeste, 18, Captain Watkins. The Cormorant steam sloop, Commander Seymour. THE BRAZILS. The Curaçoa, 24, Captain Broughton. The Racer, 16, Commander Reed. The Satellite, 16, Commander Rowley. THE WEST INDIES. The Hermes steam sloop, Commander Carr. COAST OF AFRICA. The Prometheus steam sloop, Commander Hay. The Sealark, 6, Acting-Commander Whyte. COAST OF IRELAND. The Comet steam sloop, Lieutenant-Commander Johnstone. The Stromboli steam sloop, Commander Fisher.
Sa 16 August 1851	Portsmouth, Friday. The Vulcan screw steam-ship, Master Commander Penn, arrived at Spithead this evening from the Cape of Good Hope, whither she conveyed the 74th Regiment. She left Simon's Bay on Sunday, June 1, taking in tow Her Majesty's brig Pandora to give her an offing for New Zealand, leaving the Commodore's frigate, Castor, 36, and the Dee steam-troop-ship in the bay.

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