HMS Castor (1832)
HMS Castor (1832)


Royal NavyVessels

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NameCastor (1832)Explanation
TypeFifth rate   
Launched2 May 1832
HullWooden
PropulsionSail
Builders measure1293 tons
Displacement1808 tons
Guns26
Fate1902
Class 
Ships book
Note1860 t.s.
Snippets concerning this vessels career
DateEvent
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
6 April 1857
- 2 August 1858
Commanded (until paying off at Chatham) by Captain Henry Lyster, Cape of Good Hope
16 January 1860Commanded by Commander John Palmer, Royal Naval Reservetraining ship, Shields
6 July 1867Commanded 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
DateExtract
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.
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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