Corvettes: Pearl Class

[Brian James]

21 Gun, Pearl Class Corvette HMS Pelorus pictured at Mort's Dock, Sydney in 1861..She was built at Devonport Dockyard and launched on February 5th 1857, she was armed with 20 x 8 inch (42cwt) muzzle loading smoothbore cannons on broadside trucks and 1 x 10 inch (95cwt) muzzle loading smoothbore pivot mounted bowchaser cannon. She participated as part of a squadron after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Then she was sent to the China Station during the Second Opium War until May 1859 when she sailed for the Australian Station. In June 1860, as flagship of the Australian Squadron under Captain Frederick Seymour, she participated in the attack on Puketakauere pā during the First Taranaki War. Later that year, the crew landed at Kairau to support British troops under attack from Maori and in January 1861 a gun crew from the ship helped defend the British redoubt at Huirangi against the Maori. She left the Australia Station in July 1862 for Plymouth. She was decommissioned in 1868 and was broken up for scrap in 1869.