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| Name | Grappler (1856) | Explanation | |
| Type | Gunboat | ||
| Launched | 29 March 1856 | ||
| Hull | Wooden | ||
| Propulsion | Screw | ||
| Builders measure | 232 tons | ||
| Displacement | |||
| Guns | 4 | ||
| Fate | 1885 | ||
| Class | Albacore | ||
| Ships book | ADM 135/207 | ||
| Note | 1868 sold and converted to tug, 1885 burnt | ||
| Snippets concerning this vessels career | |||
| Date | Event | ||
| 20 March 1856 | Commanded by Lieutenant commander William Greenhill Silverlock | ||
| 29 June 1859 | Commanded by Lieutenant commander Alfred Prowse Hasler Helby, Pacific | ||
| 27 February 1862 - 28 July 1865 | Commanded by Lieutenant commander Edmund Hope Verney, stationed at Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada. In the spring of 1863 the gunboats Forward, Grappler, and Devastation were called upon to assist in the capture of several Indian criminals implicated in two murders. William Brady had been killed by a party of Cowichans on a boat trip in the Gulf Islands. About the same time a band of Lamalchi Indians, who were a branch of the Cowichans, murdered Frederick Marks, a farmer settler, and his married daughter Caroline Harvey, on Saturna Island. Lieutenant Lascelles, commander of Forward felt himself forced, on account of 'the defiant attitude of the natives', to bombard and destroy an Indian villiage on Kuper Island. Eventually a number of people were apprehended and brought to Victoria for trial, where several were found guilty and hanged. Lascelles agressive attitude was not uniformly appreciated. 31 Oct 1864 Grapler's commission ended, and many of the best crewmen left. 1 Nov 1864 recommissioned. 13 May 1865 pennant hauled down for the last time (Grapler was sold and replaced later in the year by gunvessel Sparrowhawk). | ||
| 10 November 1881 - 7 February 1884 | Commanded by Captain Hon. Edmund Robert Fremantle, senior naval officer at Gibraltar | ||
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