HMS Hyacinth was an 18-gun Royal Navy ship sloop. She was launched in 1829 and surveyed the north-eastern coast of Australia under Francis Price Blackwood during the mid-1830s. She took part in the First Opium War, destroying, with HMS Volage, 29 Chinese junks. She became a coal hulk at Portland in 1860 and was broken up in 1871.

Design and construction

Hyacinth was the second of four Favorite-class ship sloops, which were a ship-rigged and lengthened version of the 1796 Cruizer-class brig-sloop. All four ships of the class were ordered on 10 June 1823 and Hyacinth was laid down at Plymouth Dockyard in March 1826. She was launched on 6 May 1829 and commissioned for the West Indies Station on 12 January 1830.

Dimensions

Hyacinth measured 109 ft along the gun deck by 30 ft in the beam, and had a tonnage of 429 40/94 bm. She was flush-decked with a small forecastle and quarterdeck.

Armament

She was armed with sixteen 32-pounder carronades and two 9-pounder bow chaser guns.

Service

During her 42-year career, she was stationed in the West and East Indies from 1829–41, took part in the First Opium War from 1841–42, and from 1843-46 was stationed off the west coast of Africa in the suppression of the slave trade. After being reduced to 14 guns in 1848, she later became a coal hulk at Portsmouth. On 2 October 1871, Hyacinth drove ashore and sank in the Clarence Creek. She was subsequently broken up.

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