HMS ''Iris'' was a 26-gun

sixth-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works a ...

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed an ...

launched on 14 July 1840 from Devonport Dockyard. She spent some time with the

West Africa Squadron The West Africa Squadron, also known as the Preventative Squadron, was a squadron of the British Royal Navy whose goal was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. Formed in 1808 after the British Parliam ...

suppressing the slave trade and later with the

East Indies Station The East Indies Station was a formation and command of the British Royal Navy. Created in 1744 by the Admiralty, it was under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies. Even in official documents, the term ''East Indies Station'' was ...

was involved in operations in Borneo. ''Iris'' was the first

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the ...

of the

Australia Station The Australia Station was the British, and later Australian, naval command responsible for the waters around the Australian continent.Dennis et al. 2008, p.53. Australia Station was under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station, ...

between 1859 and 1861 during which time she participated in the

First Taranaki War The First Taranaki War (also known as the North Taranaki War) was an armed conflict over land ownership and sovereignty that took place between Māori and the New Zealand government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand's North Island from Mar ...

.Bastock, p. 27. In 1864 she was extensively modified to allow her to ferry

transatlantic telegraph cable Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is now an obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and data a ...

to the cable-laying ship ''Great Eastern''. She was decommissioned and sold off in 1869.

Service

1840–1861

Between 1840 and 15 August 1843, she served with the

. On 28April 1841, her

ship's boats A ship's boat is a utility boat carried by a larger vessel. Ship's boats have always provided communication with the shore and with other ships. Other work done by such boats has varied over time, as marine technology has changed. In the age o ...

were involved in burning the warehouses and other property of

Niara Bely Niara Bely (c. 1790 – 1879), also known as Elizabeth Bailey Gomez, was a Luso-African queen who became a prominent businesswoman in nineteenth century Guinea. She was active in the slave trade in Farenya, Guinea. Biography Niara Bely was the ...

in Farenya, on the Pongo River. ''Iris'' was subsequently assigned to the

. In 1844 she raced the French ships ''Sirène'', ''Sabine'' and ''Victorieuse'' at Singapore and beat them. In July 1846 ''Iris'' was part of an expedition along the

Brune River Guillaume Marie-Anne Brune, 1st Count Brune (, 13 March 1764 – 2 August 1815) was a French military commander, Marshal of the Empire, and political figure who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Early life Bru ...

in Borneo under Rear-Admiral

Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Marquess of Maranhão (14 December 1775 – 31 October 1860), styled Lord Cochrane between 1778 and 1831, was a British naval flag officer of the Royal Navy, mercenary and Radical politician. He was a ...

to destroy forts and batteries there. Her captain G. Rodney Mundy led a returning force of 476 men from six Royal Navy vessels along the

Borneo River Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and east ...

later that month. She was the flagship of the

Australian Squadron The Australian Squadron was the name given to the British naval force assigned to the Australia Station from 1859 to 1911.Dennis et al. 2008, p. 67. The Squadron was initially a small force of Royal Navy warships based in Sydney, and although inten ...

between 1859 and 1860 under the command of Captain William Loring. She participated in the attack on Puketakauere

pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. Pā sites ...

, during the

and left the Australia Station in 1861.

1862–1869

Together with HMS ''Amethyst'', she was loaned by the Admiralty to the

Atlantic Telegraph Company The Atlantic Telegraph Company was a company formed on 6 November 1856 to undertake and exploit a commercial telegraph cable across the Atlantic ocean, the first such telecommunications link. History Cyrus Field, American businessman and finan ...

in 1864 and both ships were then extensively modified in 1865 for ferrying the Atlantic cable from the manufacturer's works at Enderby's Wharf, in East Greenwich, London, to the ''Great Eastern'' at her Sheerness mooring. The cable was coiled down into great cylindrical tanks at the wharf before being fed into the ''Great Eastern''. ''Amethyst'' and ''Iris'' transferred 2,500 miles (4,000 km) of cable to ''Great Eastern'', in an operation that took over three months, beginning in February 1865. Both ships were used again for the same purpose in 1866 and 1869 by the Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Company (Telcon). As obsolete sailing vessels which had to be towed while ferrying cable, neither ship was capable of independent operation, and both were described as "hulks" in contemporary reports. Also in 1866 HMS ''Iris'' was loaned to help in the recovery of the steamer ''Foyle'', which had sunk in collision with the steamer ''Collingwood'' off Barking in the Thames on 12September.Phillips, Lieutenant Commander Lawrie (2014), ''Pembroke Dockyard and the Old Navy: A Bicentennial History'' ''The Sail and Steam Navy List'' notes that according to Admiralty records, HMS ''Iris'' and HMS ''Amethyst'' were sold to the

Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company Enderby's Wharf is a wharf and industrial site on the south bank of the Thames in Greenwich, London, associated with Telcon and other companies. It has a history of more than 150 years of production of submarine communication cables and asso ...

(Telcon) after being decommissioned on 16October 1869. Harper's weekly (1865) (14764251532)

Citations

References

* Bastock, John (1988), ''Ships on the Australia Station'', Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. {{DEFAULTSORT:Iris (1840) Ships built in Plymouth, Devon Sixth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy 1840 ships Corvettes of the Royal Navy Victorian-era frigates of the United Kingdom