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| Name | Sans Pareil (1851) | Explanation | |
| Type | Third rate | Type | Two-decker |
| Launched | 18 March 1851 | Converted to screw | on the stocks |
| Hull | Wooden | Length | 200 feet |
| Propulsion | Screw | Men | 626 |
| Builders measure | 2339 tons | ||
| Displacement | 3800 tons | ||
| Guns | 70 | ||
| Fate | 1867 | Last in commission | 1863 |
| Class | |||
| Ships book | ADM 135/414 | ||
| Career | |||
| Date | Event | ||
| 18 March 1851 | Launched at Devonport Dockyard. | ||
| 9 June 1852 - 21 February 1855 | Commanded (from commissioning at Plymouth) by Captain Sidney Colpoys Dacres, Lisbon, then (1853) Channel squadron, then (1854) Black Sea during the Russian War | ||
| 22 November 1854 - February 1855 | Commanded by Acting Captain Leopold George Heath, Black Sea during the Russian War | ||
| February 1855 - 9 January 1856 | Commanded by Captain Woodford John Williams, Black Sea, and then (September 1855) transport of mortars to the Baltic during the Russian War | ||
| 9 January 1856 - April 1858 | Commanded by Captain Astley Cooper Key, in charge of a division of gunboats, then (May 1856) returning troops from the Crimea, then (September 1856) Portugal, then (March 1857) China and India (Key in command of the naval brigade at the capture of Canton, 28 December 1857 during the 2nd Anglo-Chinese War), until Key was invalided | ||
| 28 April 1858 - 30 June 1858 | Commanded by Captain Julian Foulston Slight, China during the including 2nd Anglo-Chinese War | ||
| 30 June 1858 - 15 February 1859 | Commanded (until paying off at Plymouth) by Captain Rochfort Maguire, East Indies and China | ||
| 31 December 1859 - 5 June 1862 | Commanded by Captain Arthur Parry Eardley-Wilmot, Queenstown (replacing Nile), then (July 1861) Plymouth and (November 1861) transporting troops to Mexico, toegether with Donegal and Conqueror | ||
| 7 June 1862 - 11 June 1863 | Commanded (until paying off at Plymouth) by Captain George Le Geyt Bowyear, conveying Marines to, and invalids from, China | ||
| March 1867 | Sold to C. Marshall for breaking up at Plymouth. | ||
| Extracts from the Times newspaper | |||
| Date | Extract | ||
| Ma 24 May 1852 | PLYMOUTH, Saturday. Her Majesty’s screw steam-blockship Sanspareil, 81, in charge of Mr. Biddlecombe and a party of seamen riggers, having been towed out of harbour yesterday at 6 a.m. by the steam-vessels Pike and Confiance, went into the Channel to try her engines, under the superintendence of Captain W. Ramsey, of the Magicienne, and in company with the steam-sloop Desperate, Lieutenant Stevens. The Sanspareil returned at 7 in the evening, and went up Hamoaze; her average speed under steam was 7¼ knots, the engines working well. She is now ordered to take on board all her guns and stores, when her engines will be again tried. | ||
| Ma 11 June 1855 | The Calliope, 26, Captain Fitzgerald, which arrived at Plymouth on Friday, left England on the 2d of March, 1851, and reached Sydney on the 20th of July. She then entered upon a service of civilization, by visiting, with one or two exceptions, every port in the islands of New Zealand, and, after calling at Hobart Town, performed the next year a similar duty among the Feejee Isles, including the penal settlement of Norfolk Island, and then returned to Sydney. Captain Sir Everard Home, who put her in commission, and whose loss was felt by all hands, died November 3,1853, from a complaint which was increased by devotion to his profession. While in Australia the Calliope lost several of her crew, who were replaced in the colony, but from her detachment of Marines, commanded by Lieutenant Leslie, only one deserted. This frigate's passage from Australia to Cape Horn presents some remarkable features, especially at the present moment, when a knowledge of the shortest and most free route is so valuable. She left Melbourne February 27, and was off Cape Horn March 30. Her commander endeavoured to preserve the parallel of 50 degrees S. Hail fell on the 24th of March, in lat. 51 6, long. 98 14 W.; hail and snow on the 28th, in lat. 55, long. 76. Off the Horn they were in 50 S. In this passage they experienced no check; strong breezes prevailed occasionally, but no inconvenience from sea or wind, and there would have been no difficulty in heaving to, if necessary, at anytime. Excepting four days, an observation was taken regularly. Winds chiefly from the westward, varying from S.W. to N.N.W.; force, 7 to 8; and four days only reached 10 or 11 weather generally overcast and cloudy. The lowest latitude, 56 10 S., was made on the evening of the 28th of March. Lowest thermometer, 31°, was felt after passing the Horn, and when near the Falkland Islands, lieutenant D'Arcy, of the surveying vessel Herald, 8. Captain Denham, on promotion, and Mr. Chevalier, from Rio Janeiro, came home passengers in the Calliope. Her freight from Melbourne is 7,500 oz. of gold, and not 70,500 oz., as telegraphed on Friday. The frigate Juno, 26, Captain S.G. Fremantle, arrived at Sydney on the 30th of January, and, in consequence of the appearance of smallpox, was put under quarantine, but relieved again previous to the departure of the Calliope, on the 7th of February. The sloop Fantome, 12, Commander John H. Gennys, left Melbourne on the 22d of February for New Zealand. The Calliope has been towed up Hamoaze, where she is to be dismantled and put out of commission. Her crew will be paid down and transferred to the Sanspareil and other ships. | ||
| Th 13 September 1860 | The following is a list of ships in commission at Plymouth: - In the Sound, the screw steamship St George, 90, Capt. the Hon. Francis Egerton; the Sans Pareil, 70, Capt Arthur P.R. Wilmot; and the screw steam gunvessel Espoir, 5, Commander Sholto Douglas. In Hamoase, the flagship Impregnable, 104, Capt. Lord F. Kerr; the training ship Royal Adelaide, 104, Capt. K. Ball; the guardship in ordinary Wellington, 72, Capt. Astley C. Key; the Boscawen, 70, Capt. Richard A. Powell; the Implacable, 24, Commander J. W. Dorville; the gunnery training ship Cambridge, Capt. Jerningham;, the brig Nautilus, 6, Lieut. W.B. Grave; the paddlewheel steam tender Avon, 3; and the gunboat Porpoise, tender to the Royal Albert, and the Redwing, tender to the Cambridge. | ||
| We 15 January 1862 | From letters received from the West Indies, dated Jamaica, December 21, by our Chatham correspondent, several important movements on the part of the various vessels of war are announced. The Mersey, 40, 100-horse power, Capt. H. Caldwell, C.B., arrived at Port Royal, on the 13th of December, from Bermuda, and was shortly expected to leave. The Donegal, 99, 800-horse power, Capt. Osborn, C.B., and the Sanspareil, 70, 400-horse power, Capt. Bowyear, arrived from England on the 16th, with part of the Marine battalion, for Mexico, on board. The Himalaya, 700-horse power, Capt. Seccombe, had arrived from Bermuda, and was to leave for Barbadoes and England on the 22d of December. The Conqueror, 101, 800-horse power, Capt. Sotheby,C.B., had arrived out with her Marines, and was to leave for Bermuda about the 24th of December. Her Majesty's paddlewheel steamer Barracouta, 6, Capt. Malcolm, arrived at Jamaica, from England, on the 15th of December. The Sanspareil passed the Cadmus, 21, Captain Hillyar, C.B., near Antigua, standing to the southward, on the 9th. Of December, last from St. Thomas. Her Majesty's screw steamers St. George, 86, Captain the Hon. F. Egerton, and Cygnet, 5, Commander Thrupp, arrived at Port Royal on the 2lst of December, also a small French screw sloop of war. All were well on board these ships. | ||
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