User:MinorProphet/Draft subpages/HMS Cyclops (1839)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Cyclops.

HMS Cyclops in the Solent under Admiralty orders, on her first commissioning. Etching/engraving by Henry A. Papprill after a lithograph by William Knell.

HMS Cyclops was a Royal Navy wooden-built, paddle wheel steam frigate of 6 guns launched in 1839. She was the lead ship of the Cyclops-class second-class frigates, adapted from the design of . Together with three later ships derived from Cyclops these vessels formed the first concerted attempt to modernise the Royal Navy with steam power: all previous Navy steam vessels had been one-off designs.

Like Gorgon, the lack of guns on the main gun deck together with the orlop deck meant that with a reduced crew of 175 or 145 she could accommodate an entire regiment of around 500, including men, some of their families(?) and baggage. She carried marines and Turkish troops into action in Syria in 1840, and also carried marines and troops to and from Ireland (including being an intimidating presence at an Irish Repeal movement "monster meeting" in 1843). She formed part of the squadron escorting the Royal Yacht on Queen Victoria's first foreign visit.

With only six guns, she was unlikely to fight against another naval warship, although she bombarded shore positions in the Mediterranean and Sevastopol, and took prizes of several Brazilian slaver ships of the W. coast of Africa. Also in the light winds of the eastern Mediterranean she made good time as a steamer delivering diplomatic messages and messengers, and carrying troops and marines in combined operations.

Although she—like other paddle steamers—was not as good a survey platform as a screw-driven ship, Cyclops was much more manoeuvrable than a sailing ship. Consequently she carried out oceanic surveys on the W. coast of Ireland; in the N. Atlantic and the Red Sea preparing for submarine telegraphic cables; and also off the S.E. coast of Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

A number of those who first served on Cyclops as midshipmen, lieutenants or captains later rose to Admiral rank.

Cyclops-class steam frigates

The Cyclops class were four wooden-hulled, paddle wheel steam frigates built by the Royal Navy and launched between 1839 and 1844. Designed by William Symonds, they all carried six large calibre heavy guns on the upper deck and at the same time were capable of transporting an entire regiment of troops anywhere in the world. Based on they were named , HMS Firebrand (1842), , and HMS Gladiator (1844).

The term Cyclops class is a modern one: as newer and more powerful warships were launched, reclassified several times. They are perhaps best recognised as Class 2(B) steam frigates, along with three similar designs: HMS Sampson (1844), the only ship in the Sampson-class (two funnels); and the two modified Firebrands, HMS Centaur (1845), and HMS Dragon (1845) - again, all designed by William Symonds.. These last three are sometimes gathered together as a modified Cyclops class.

2nd class frigates armament in 1847: 2 x 68 pdrs (95 cwt, 10 ft barrels), + 4 x 10-inch guns (85 cwt, 9' 4" barrels).(Winfield np)

None of the seven frigates were exactly similar: the later ships were lengthened slightly and were fitted with more powerful engines. Gorgon, although of almost exactly the same basic design as Cyclops, was reclassified in 1844 as one of the many first-class steam sloops, all of which carried one 68-pounder, one 10-inch gun, and four 32-pounders. She is listed in the table below since she was almost identical to Cyclops.

Background

was the Navy's very first steamship, although the engine (20 hp) was not satisfactory and was removed after her initial trials. The tug was I fink the Navy's first steamship of any kind, altho apparently not added to the Navy List until 1831, followed by Lightning (1823), Meteor (1824), and Pluto (1831). (5 guns in the end) was the Navy's first ocean-going steam warship, followed by Rhadamanthus (1832), and Medea (1833): by 1837 the Navy had 30 steamships built, with 7 more purchased.

It was with and that the Navy's steam warship program really got under way, followed by a further six paddle steamers of relatively similar design, capable of carrying six very heavy guns and an entire regiment of troops anywhere in the world whichever way the wind was blowing.(Friedman, loc=Beginnings: Paddle Warships, n.p.)

Earliest classification of Navy steamships

The initial classification of the Navy's steamships was begun at the first trial of Cyclops in March 1840. The Board of Admiralty directed that a committee of Naval officers should meet and arrange a list of the requisite stores, length and size of the breechings for guns, and all the gunner's stores, for the Navy's steamers, putting them in classes. The committee consisted of "officers every way adapted for the duty," namely: Captain Sir Thomas Hastings of , Captain Horatio Austin of the Cyclops, and Fred W. R. Sadler, Second Master Attendant of Chatham Dockyard. The list was begun with Cyclops (steam vessel, first class); , Rhadamanthus (1832), Medea (1833), and (second class); no ships were immediately assigned to the third class; and Pluto (1831), a gunvessel/steam tug, (steam vessel, fourth class). This classification was to eliminate any difficulty in furnishing the proper stores, both in size and quantity, as steamers refitted at the different dockyards at home or abroad. It was thought "very likely that one or two other classes would be introduced, and a good many added to the already-named ships." See also which expands the list.

The Cyclops class

Along with , on whose design they were fairly closely based, the Cyclops class were originally classed as Steam Vessels class 1 (SV1). With the launch in 1844 of HMS Retribution which carried ten guns on two decks, and classified as the first Steam Frigate class 1, the existing SV1s were reclassified as Steam Frigates class 2(B) under Admiralty Order of 31 May 1844; then as paddle corvettes in the 1850s;; during the Russian War Cyclops alone was listed as a steam tug in the Black Sea, and by 1858 they were all referred to as paddle wheel steam sloops.

As the Admiralty's classification of steamers from 1847 shows, the classes were defined by the exact armament fitted. All these seven frigates carried the same armament, and were therefore grouped together by the Admiralty as class 2(B). Careful!! All the classes *did have different armament, check vv carefully!

• Steam Ships:
  • (sailing frigate converted to steam) - Main deck (in steam): 8 x 8-inch guns (65cwt, 9ft); 2 x 68-pounder carronades (36 cwt, 5 ft 4 in); Upper deck: 2 x 68-pounders (95 cwt, 10 ft); 4 x 8-inch guns (65 cwt, 9ft). Total 16.
  • - Main deck: none, but if possible 4 x 32-pounders for head & stern firing; Upper deck: 2 x 68-pounders (95 cwt, 10ft); 4 x 10-inch guns (85 cwt, 9 ft 4 in): Total 6.
  • - Main deck: 4 x 56-pounders (75 cwt, 11 ft); 4 x 8-inch (65 cwt, 9 ft). Upper deck: 4 x 56-pounders (97 cwt, 11 ft); 4 x 10-inch guns (85 cwt, 9 ft 4in); Total 16.
• Class 1 frigates: HMS Avenger and HMS Birkenhead, all of 1845 - Upper deck: 2 x 68 pdr (95 cwt, 10 ft barrels) on pivot slides & carriages (OR later? 8 inch calibre, 112 cwt - ref???), 4 x 10-inch guns (85 cwt, 9 ft 4 in), on slides & carriages, total 6. NB Exactly the same armament as Class 2(B), but greater BM tonnage (1400, 1440)
• Class 2(A) frigates: Odin, Sidon (designed by Charles Napier, who had personally commanded the storming of Sidon in 1840), and Leopard (1850): main deck: six 32-pounders (56 cwt., 9 ft 6 in barrels); Upper deck: 2 x 68 pdr (95 cwt, 10 ft barrels) on pivot slides & carriages: total 12.
• Class 2(B) frigates: 7 ships as listed: Upper deck: 2 x 68 pdr (95 cwt, 10 ft barrels) on pivot slides & carriages, 4 x 10-inch guns (85 cwt, 9 ft 4 in), on slides & carriages, total 6.

Although Gorgon was very similar to Cyclops, she was reclassified as a steam sloop in 1844, because of her slightly inferior armament.

Cyclops was ordered 25 June 1836 along with Gorgon. July 1838 lengthened by 12¼ ft. (Friedman, np) Slightly "improved versions" (HOW?) Firebrand, Vulture & Gladiator ordered 18 March 1841; on the same day three more ships were ordered: Sampson, a Cyclops design lengthened by 13½ ft; much less rise of floor, barque-rigged and two funnels: and Centaur & Dragon, which were a Firebrand design lengthened by 10 ft. (Winfield, p. 312)(Friedman, np)

• Sampson details: loa 203' 6": perps 178' 1¼": beam 37' 6": hold 23' 0": bm 1,297.
  • Engines G. & J. Rennie, 467 nhp
  • Ord 18 March 1841: Keel November 1843: Lunch 1 October 1844: Completed 5 February 1846 Woolwich & Sheerness
  • Costs Total £56,764 (hull £23,931, machinery £21,043, fitting £11,790).(

• Gladiator details: loa 190' 0": perps 163' 9": beam 37' 8": hold 23' 0": bm 1,210 1/3: disp 1,960. **Engines Miller, Ravenhill & Col(?), 430 nhp, 943 ihp.
  • Ordered 18 March 1841 like all the others: Keel February 1842: Lunch 15 October 1844: paid off 20 February 1872. Sold (by Adm.Ord. 25 Jan 1877) to Castle,: BU March 1879.
  • Costs: Hull £21,535: machinery £23,579; fitting £12,659. (all details Winfield 2014 p. 311)

• Dragon (ex Janus) details: loa 200': perps 174' 4": beam 37'6": hold 23': bm 1,269
  • Engines Wm. Fairbairn, 560 nhp
  • Ord 18 March 1841: Keel January 1844: Lunch 17 July 1845: comp July 1847
  • Costs Hull £26,401: mach. £25,005: Fitting: £16,024 (relief @Sheerness £9,256, sea @Woolwich £5,828)
  • pic - shows main & foremasts both with gaffs, and a gaff-rigged mizzen added after completion, like Centaur. (Winfield p. 312)

• Centaur details: loa 200': perps 174' 4": beam 37'6": hold 23': bm 1,269
  • Engines Bolton, Watt & Co 540 nhp
  • Ord 18 March 1844: Keel December 1844: Lunch 6 October 1845: comp. 3 February 1849
  • Costs Total £64,107: hull £27,080: mach £26,050: fitting £10,977

Dragon (designed by Admiral Cochrane, Lord Dundonald) was renamed Janus in July 1843.

These paddle steamers had no gun deck batteries: their armament was usually limited to six very heavy guns mounted on the weather deck (see § Design and construction). Classified as Class 1 steam frigates: the Cyclops and subsequent similar classes were re-graded as Class 2(B) steam frigates.

Cyclops class were rigged as a brig; Sampson was barque rigged, Centaur & Dragon were brig-rigged with a gaff sail on an added mizzen.

Table of 'Class 2(B) steam frigates, including 'Cyclops-class frigates etc., plus HMS Gorgon

Name	Date	BM	Disp.	loa	keel	perps	beam	hold	draught	Engines	hp	padd
Gorgon	1837	1108	1610	235 ft (71.6 m)	152 ft 2 in (46.4 m)	178	37 6	23	15 8	Seaward	320	25 10
Cyclops	1839	1189	1862	217 9		190 3	37 6	23	15 8	Seaward	320	26' 9"
Firebrand	1842	bm	1960	loa	keel	perps	beam	hold	draught	Seaward	400	26'
Vulture	1843	bm	1960	loa	keel	190' 0½"	37' 6"	23'	draught	Fairbairn	476	26' 6"
Gladiator	1844	1190	1960	loa	178' 5"	203' 6"	37' 6"	hold	draught	Miller	450	padd
Sampson	1844	1,297	2100	203' 6"	keel	178' 1¼"	37' 6"	23' 0"	draught	Maudslay OR G&J Rennie	450 467	27' 9"
Centaur	1845	bm	2100	loa	keel	perps	beam	hold	draught	engines	540	padd
Dragon	1845	bm	2100	loa	keel	perps	beam	hold	draught	Fairbairn	560	27' 9"

Sampson, Centaur & Dragon details:

Title	British Warships in the Age of Sail 1817-1863: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates
Volume 4 of British warships in the age of sail, Rif Winfield
Author	Rif Winfield
Edition	illustrated
Publisher	Seaforth Publishing, 2014
ISBN	1848321694, 9781848321694
page=312
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TPZDBgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=true 

• "Table of British and foreign steam vessels. with their principal dimensions". The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal. 8: 352–4. November 1845.

Cyclops only:

Dimensions:                Ft   Ins (from above ref)
Extreme length:             217  9
Length upper deck           195  2
Width across paddle boxes    57  0
Length of engine room        62  0
Beam                         38  0
Depth of hold                23  0
Draught with guns, ammo, engines, coals & six months' stores  - 12' 6"
Tonnage (burthen)           1200 tons
Speed                        10 knots

Design and construction

General view of Pembroke Dock

Cyclops was originally intended to be a sister to HMS Gorgon, designed by William Symonds, the Surveyor of the Navy from 1832 to 1847. Cyclops was ordered on 25 June 1836 to the same design as Gorgon: but when Gorgon was launched in 1838, newspaper and journal reports claimed that she was so overweight that the planned armament on the gun deck was abandoned, and the gun ports had to be permanently closed. A certain amount of redesign took place of Cyclops, and she was lengthened by 12 feet on 14 July 1838 before her keel was laid down in August 1838 at the Royal Dockyards, Pembroke Dock.

She was launched on 10 July 1839 in the presence of a considerable number of spectators, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather. Next morning she was taken into dry dock to be coppered & rigged, still there on 17 July. The steam engines for pumping out the dock were not finished, and the workmen were obliged to work in a considerable depth of water.

Like Gorgon, the engines occupied the whole of the ship's centre section from the keel to the upper deck. The divided orlop deck, fore and aft, was appropriated for the reception of troops with stores and baggage. Water, provisions and stores were stowed in the holds located either end of the central engine section.

Total hands inc. officers and a complement of Marines, approx 210 men. She could also operate with a reduced crew of 175 for troop transport duties.REF PLS

Total initial cost including engines: £53,831 [14]

Later design improvements

During operations off Syria, it was realised that, although they could carry a large number of troops, the steamers were not equipped with enough—or sufficiently large boats—to swiftly disembark the soldiers they carried. A Captain G. Smith had devised the solution by 1840, namely, the paddle-box boat. This was a type of capacious ship's boat propelled by oars, and designed to be stored upside-down on the wooden boxes which covered the ship's paddle-wheels. Cyclops carried two; there is also a contemporary mention of them being carried on HMS Geyser:

June 1843: it is understood that for many years that the instructions given to the helmsman on board a paddle steam vessel were passed from the bridge (ie the quarterdeck), between the two paddle-boxes, by movements or waves of the hand by the Commander, the Officer of the Watch or Pilot. This made piloting the vessel at night most difficult, voice or messenger appearing to be the only medium available ? A new device has now been introduced which transmits a light signal to the helmsman, which can also be seen by oncomng vessels.

Armament

A 68 pounder pivot gun in the stern of HMS Sidon

Cyclops's armament was upgraded several times.

Cyclops original planned armament was 2 x 98 pounders and 4 x 48 pounders on the upper deck: and 16 x 32 [long] pounders on the gun deck. During her first fitting-out (December 1839) she temporarily embarked 6 x 32 pounder guns, but these were never permanently installed. As mentioned above, all the second class paddle frigates had no main deck batteries.

By the time of her first commissioning (March 1840) Cyclops was armed with 2 x 10-inch 98-pounder 112cwt chaser guns, one forward and one aft, and 4 x 68-pounder 8-inch 95cwt guns, the latter on the upper deck also. Although she had ports for sixteen 32-pounders, there were none on board.

In 1845 the 98-pounder chasers were replaced with 84cwt guns, and the 68-pounders with 65cwt guns.

In 1856 the 84cwt chasers were replaced EITHER with 68pdrs (like the original broadsides guns), OR with 2 x 96 pounder guns, 95 cwt, 10 feet barrel on pivot slides and carriages: and the 4 x 68pdrs with 10-inch 84cwt shell guns. These latter smooth-bore, muzzle loading guns fired round hollow explosive shells fitted with fuses, not to be confused with the later conical shells fired by rifled breech loaders.

Engines

See also: HMS Gorgon (1837) § Engines

She was equipped with 2x 160 hp direct acting steam engines made by John Seaward & Capel, Canal Iron Works, City Canal, Milwall. The engines originally destined for Cyclops were diverted to Gorgon on 17 October 1838, and new ones were ordered 20 October 1838. H.M.S. Cyclops' engines were built at a total cost, including tools and spares, of £22,103. Total initial cost including engines: £53,831

The engine room took up 63 feet in the ship's centre section, the engines rising from almost the keel to the upper deck. Coal bunkers ran the length of engine room on both sides. The engines weighed 70 tons less than a common beam engine.

Gorgon's engines & description:

Diagrams of Cyclops engines, also fitted in Gorgon, Prometheus, and Alecto. The same engines were also fitted in the Russian paddle steamer Nicolai for the Lübeck & St. Petersburg Steam Company, and in the paddle steamship Auckland for the East India Company.

Four copper tubular boilers fitted with Seawards' system for prevention of heat radiation, now generally adopted by the Navy. External temp of boilers only 68 degs, in the stoke hole only 72 degs. Seaward's Salt Detector allows equal quantities of salt and fresh water to be used.

Fitted with John Seaward's heat savers [ie John Seaward's patent method of warming the feed water to 60 degs F above normal in copper tubes heated by exhaust steam from the cylinders on its way to the condensers: resulting in a 7 percent fuel saving] and expansion gear, and with Samuel Seward's salt gauge which used gravity or hydrometer balls. (desc. previous volume p. 353.) Also Boiler blowdown

The engine room crew consisted of four engineers, twelve stokers and 4 coal trimmers (to distribute the coal evenly in the bunkers as it is used up).

Method of disconnecting the paddles to prepare for sailing:

Cyclops' engines were set to work for the first time at Seaward's Canal Works on 4 December 1839. The salt gauge was not tested since she was still at Blackwall. Also on show for the press and public were 1:24 scale models of the Seawards' engine and a marine beam engine: these exhibited the simplicity of parts and the saving of weight and space. Both these still exist, and are in the National Maritime Museum (although not on display): For a comparison to the side-beam engine, see

During 1840–1843 in the Mediterranean, Prometheus, Alecto and Cyclops (which all had the same engines fitted), were the most time- and expense-consuming steamships serviced at Malta. See §Engine repairs, 1840–1843

Fitting out and trials

13 December 1839: First trip from Blackwall to Sheerness for fitting out w/guns etc - with Lords of the Admiralty on board: the First Naval Lord Sir Charles Adam; Mr Richard More O'Ferrall, First Naval Secretary; Sir William Parry comptroller of the Navy's new department of steam machinery; Captain Nott (second Captain of the gunnery ship HMS Excellent (Capt. Thos Hastings) & Post Captain Austin. Reached the Nore lightship (the world's first), and turned round. Accompanied by Fearless - their lordships embarked in Fearless and returned to Woolwich, Cyclops made fast to a buoy off Sheerness Dockyard. While fitting-out at Sheerness she temporarily carried 6 x 32 pounder guns and was at first destined for service the East Indies.

Her proper armament was later installed, and she arrived at Portsmouth on March 20, 1840. A day or two later orders were sent for her to go to Spithead amd St Helens Fort to try the range of her guns, and also to ascertain what effect, if any, the firing of them might have on the machinery and her frame generally. On this trial, Admiral Sir Edward Codrington (Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth), Captain Sir Thomas Hastings of the gunnery training ship HMS Excellent, and about twenty Naval officers attended, and the result gave universal satisfaction. The Cyclops was steaming all the time, and between 20 and 30 rounds were fired from the different guns; nothing started—not a glass was broke, although some were placed in situations not usual; and some of the Officers declared that they experienced greater shocks in ships of the line, than in this noble [p. 546] steam-frigate, when the heavy 10-inch guns were fired. It should, however, be noticed, that all the explosions were in the open air, and not between decks. After this experimental trial, the Cyclops anchored at Spithead until orders arrived for her going to Cork.

Dimensions:                Ft   Ins (from above ref)
Extreme length:             217  9
Length upper deck           195  2
Width across paddle boxes    57  0
Length of engine room        62  0
Beam                         38  0
Depth of hold                23  0
Draught with guns, ammo, engines, coals & six months' stores  - 12' 6"
Tonnage (burthen)           1200 tons
Speed                        10 knots

Engines:
Diameter of cylinder             64" (5' 4")
Stroke                        5  6
Cruising revs                     21 rpm
Power                       320 hp (2x 160hp) 
Diameter of paddle wheel     26  0
Width of wheel                8  0
Weight of engines, boilers & water    280 tons
Weight of coals for 25 days           450 tons
Fuel consumption              17 cwt. per hour
Specific consumption           6 lbs coal per horse per hour

Planned armament: 2 x 98 pounders, 4 x 48 pounders, 16 x 32 long pounders 

Handling

Towards the end of her life in 1857, Captain Pullen heavily criticised the Cyclops' handling qualities under power while surveying: "The helm alone is not sufficient to keep her in one spot, for the ship does not answer it until she has good way on. In fact, like all paddle steamers and even with the after sail the ship is ahead of the spot we wish to bring her to before she begins to turn up [into the wind]. Hence the advantage of a screw vessel, which answers to the helm even before getting headway." Pullen was also critical of her lack of sailing qualities: "All the sail we could pack on could not move her more than five knots, her average speed being about three without steam! If differently masted she might do better for at present she has not sail sufficient, and the spars are so light we cannot press them much."

Service

List of operations from Naval Database - Cyclops 1839, http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/C/01238.html and Cyclops, https://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=1309

19 November 1839: Cyclops was commanded by Captain Horatio Thomas Austin, (also http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/austin_horatio_thomas_9E.html) Mediterranean fleet (including operations on the coast of Syria in 1840) Austin previously commanded HMS Salamander, one of the Navy's first paddle warships.

Portsmouth, March 20, 1840. "Mr. Editor, The Cyclops steam-frigate, commanded by Captain H. T. Austin, arrived at Portsmouth on the 20th ultimo [ie February]; and after a stay of a few days in the harbour, she was ordered to embark the depôt companies of the 24th Regiment [ie perhaps not the regular service companies, the main Regiment was in Canada], and convey them from this garrison to Cork, and return with the depôt companies of the 61st Regiment, consisting of nearly 600 officers, rank and file, women and children, and land them at Southampton, on their route to Winchester Barracks".

Aha - the 61st had been in Ceylon, came back on the troopship HMS Jupiter (1813), leaving in October 1839. 399 men, 29 women and 76 children of the regiment = c500. Arrived off Plymouth in March 1840, couldn't land for a fortnight because of high winds, carried on to Cork ["where Cyclops collected the remainder of the regiment" ← I think this may be a misreading of the above paragraph] and was towed to Cowes, then Portsmouth, landing 14th March, 1840. The regiment then had their first train ride back to barracks.

The Cyclops has a most capacious quarter-deck and forecastle; and although, it being but a short trip to Cork, all the baggage of the depôt of the 24th Regiment was kept on deck, yet there was ample room to perform any evolution. On her return from Ireland, she went up to Southampton, with 600 people on deck. She has good accommodation below for 500 men, but this is with her present reduced crew of 175; if she has a frigate's complement, and the guns for the main-deck put on board, with the requisite stores, shot, and other ammunition, provisions, water, &c., she could not take that number any considerable distance. At present she might with comfort convey a regiment to the Mediterranean, Canada, or the West Indies. The Cyclops is reported to be very easy at sea, and possesses great speed; her engines, boilers, and all the machinery are perfection itself, and reflect infinite credit on Messrs. Seaward the engineers.

She was then intended to go to Lisbon with a capstan for the Revenge, and stores for the ships in the River Tagus, and afterwards proceed to Gibraltar and the Mediterranean; but since her return from Ireland an accident has happened to one of her boilers—(by some unaccountable negligence the water was permitted to run off too low, and in consequence the iron collapsed, and the boiler sustained very great injury), — and she is therefore now alongside the dock-yard under repair.

By April 1840 her boilers were fixed, and Cyclops sailed from Portsmouth to join the Mediterranean Fleet commanded by Admiral Sir Robert Stopford.

Oriental Crisis of 1840

Main articles: Oriental Crisis of 1840 and Egyptian–Ottoman War (1839–1841)

This early Victorian period of Middle Eastern history tends to be overshadowed by the Crimean War in the popular imagination. Since Cyclops played a minor yet somewhat crucial role in a particularly complex episode of international diplomacy, there follows a brief introduction, mostly for my own benefit. Game of Thrones has nothing on this.

But read this first.

Background

Muhammad Ali in 1840

The Crisis of 1840 had its origins when the French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) under Napoleon Bonaparte ended with the French defeat at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801 and the Treaty of Paris in 1802. The consequent regional power vacuum resulted in a three-way civil war between the Ottoman Turks, Egyptian Mamluks who had ruled Egypt for centuries, and Albanian mercenaries led by the Macedonian-born Muhammad Ali in the service of the Ottomans. The war ended in victory for the Albanians after the failure of the British Alexandria expedition of 1807 and the massacre of the Mamluks in Cairo the same year: and Muhammad Ali became Wāli (viceroy) of Egypt with the title of Pasha.

His goal was for Egypt to leave the Ottoman Empire and be ruled by his own hereditary dynasty. In furtherance of this aim he invaded Sudan in 1820, and his eldest son Ibrahim Pasha invaded the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Greek War of Independence (1821–32) against Ottoman rule. His reward was to be the permanent rulership of Syria. However, the campaign ended with his defeat at the Battle of Navarino in 1827 against a combined British, French and Russian fleet.

Ibrahim Pasha in 1846

Ibrahim Pasha then invaded Syria during the Egyptian–Ottoman War (1831–33). In this he was assisted by the French Colonel Sève (Suleiman Pasha, after the restored Kingdom of France was overthrown in the July Revolution of 1830 followed by the July Monarchy under Louis Philippe I.

The decisive Turkish defeat at the Battle of Konya in December 1832 brought the First Egyptian–Ottoman War to an end. The Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II sued for peace with Muhammed Ali: he ceded greater Syria to Muhammad Ali for his lifetime, and ceded Egypt's rule to Muhammad Ali's dynasty in perpetuity. After the campaign of 1832 and 1833, Ibrahim remained as governor in Syria. He might perhaps have administered successfully, but the exactions he was compelled to enforce by his father soon caused the popularity of his government to decline and provoked revolts.

Unrest in Syria

See also: Syrian Peasant Revolt (1834–35)

While Muhammed Ali and his son Ibrahim were in armed conflict against Ottoman rule from Constantinople, the Catholic Maronite Christians, and the nominally Muslim Druze clans of Mount Lebanon were involved in their own local rebellion against Egyptian rule. They had previously tended to live in harmony on the mountain, but the 1838 Druze revolt had set them against each other. The prospect of throwing off the Egyptian yoke temporarily united them in June–July 1840 and again that September.

Amir Bashir was the Maronite Christian ruler of Lebanon, supportive of the Syrian ruler Ibrahim Pasha and Muhammed Ali, although he often had a hard time deciding where his loyalties lay.

The Maronites and the Druze had originally been united against Egyptian rule, but the Maronites under Bashir had allied themselves with Egyptian and Albanian troops (who had helped Muhammed Ali to victory in 1807), and attacked the revolting Druze in their mountain strongholds.

• Schlicht, Alfred (1980). "The Rôle of Foreign Powers in the History of Lebanon and Syria from 1799 to 1861". Journal of Asian History. 14 (2). Harrassowitz Verlag: 97–126. JSTOR 41930375.

Ibrahim Pasha had in Bašīr Šihāb (Amir Bashir) his most powerful ally. In their efforts to control the country efficiently the Egyptians pursued a policy of "divide et impera."

"But the growing demands and harsh measures of the Egyptian administration finally had the effect of uniting the opposed parties against Egyptian rule. Collaboration with the Egyptians had not saved the Lebanese from oppressive measures, from the the 'insatiable rapacité d'un brigandage organisé,"49 and so the different religious groups worked together to resist Muhammad 'Alis troops. In [?June?[ 1840 a convention was concluded in which Lebanese of all creeds declared their will to stand together against Egyptian rule. In a circular calling all inhabitants of Mount Lebanon up to revolt, the aims of the movement were formulated: the abolition of certain taxes, of conscription and of forced labour; Lebanon should not be disarmed.50 50 CPC/T/B/vol. 1 Consul Bourée 12/6/1840 f 36/37" - is this Wood? (Schlicht 107)

page 68 note 1 "The British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston underlined and queried the words, ‘which is also Your Lordship's opinion’, as well as the section in which Wood recommends rescuing the Sultan from his intolerable situation; but Ponsonby soon showed that Wood had interpreted his sentiments correctly. He sent Wood's despatch home on 6 Feb. 1836, and demanded action from Britain in an excited despatch of 7 Feb., writing, ‘I have for years past urged His Majesty's Government to be prepared for the crisis that is now approaching’, F.O. 78/273." (Cunningham notes p. 68)

Two Lebanese Druze sheiks arrived in autumn of 1839 at the British embassy in Constantinople, asking Ponsonby for help "in spite of their originally not very favourable attitude towards British 'heretics'."(Schlicht 108)(Ufford 107-8)

"In France, indeed, there was not even a clear line of action: there were two parties obstructing each other's policy. On the one hand, there was Prime Minister Adolphe Thiers who favoured Muhammad Ali and took the Maronite issue for a minor problem. On the other hand, there was King Louis Philippe I who headed the group of those who wanted to back foremostly the old French allies in the mountains, the Maronites, and even thought of founding an autonomous Christian principality under the natural protectorate of France. The count d'Onfroi, about whose activities we find hints in the political correspondence of the French consul at Beirut, was a nephew of the French king and went to Mount Lebanon "to help the insurgents against the Egyptians with ammunition, money and the promise of France's support. As Louis had the backing of the clerical party in this venture, d'Onfroi was able to bring with him a letter from the pope to the Maronite patriarch in which promises of indulgence were made for those who would take up arms against the pasha of Egypt."56 (Schlicht 108)

Palmerston's plan to base British influence on a pro-Druse policy was ill-conceived. One practical result of it was that Wood, the British Ambassador's secret agent [see below] as a Roman Catholic was considered by Palmerston to be a Maronite partisan, and accordingly when the office of consul-general for Syria was revived in 1841 it went to Colonel Hugh Rose, later FM Lord Strathnairn, the commander of the remaining British military detachments in Lebanon. (Probably move to after-effects.)

The new French Prime Minister Adolphe Thiers was a key figure in the French July Revolution in 1830, and a strong supporter of Muhammad Ali, and he tried in March/April? 1840 to intercede to broker a direct agreement between Muhammed Ali and the Sublime Porte without the knowledge of the other European powers.(Thiers wiki) (Farah p 34) France was in a difficult position. Firstly, the government was split into two factions, a pro-war party led by Thiers, and a peace party led by Guizot and Louis-Philippe: and secondly France had always been pro-Egypt, but this conflicted with French support for the Christian Maronites who were in insurrection against Egyptian rule of Lebanon.(Farah 120-121) Furthermore, the French Consul Bourée in Beirut (on behalf of the Guizot–Louis-Philippe faction), was organising and arming the rebels, both Druze and Maronites, against Suleiman Pasha (the Arabicised name of the French Colonel Joseph Sève) who was aligned with Thiers - i fink.(Farah 116-7)

When France's unilateral maneuverings came to light, the other European powers were understandably put out. So France did not take part in the 1840 Campaign, which was executed by a combined forces of a mostly British fleet with an Austrian and a loyal Turkish ship, carrying British Marines, Austrian and Turkish troops, and Lebanese mountaineers.

Operations

The Temple of Athena, Assos, with Lesbos on the left.

Into this particularly complex power struggle sailed the Cyclops, arriving at Valletta harbour in May 1840.

In early June 1840 before the crisis had fully begun, Cyclops was in the Gulf of Adramyttium with a detached squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir John Louis in HMS Ganges with Commodore Charles Napier in HMS Powerful. A certain amount of sightseeing took place, and a visit to the ruins of Assos was proposed. An unusual gathering took place on the deck of Cyclops as around 100 officers of the squadron and their picnic baskets, plus the wife of one of the captains and a lady companion, all arrived on board. Officers rarely met each other socially, staying on board their own ship most of the time. A quadrille was danced on board to "one of the best bands in the squadron", and the party was ferried to the Turkish mainland, where the band later struck up at the very top of the ruins, to the astonishment of the Turkish locals.

Basically the British government took advantage of the general unrest in the country to secure a victory. <thinks> With a such a small force - a fleet of only six ships of the line and some steamers with marines - and against a united enemy, there would have been considerably less chance of winning against a considerably larger force.</thinks>

Cyclops was despatched in June to Istanbul to pick up Richard Wood, the Catholic brother-in-law of the British Consul in Beirut and a secret agent of the Ambassador to the Sublime Porte, Lord Ponsonby.

June-July revolt

. Having armed the Maronites with muskets and enlisted their help against the Druze in 1836, Ibrahim Pasha now wanted them to return their weapons, which they were unwilling to do.(Ufford 110) Richard Wood engineered a coalition between the Maronite clergy and a few Druse sheiks who had never been in favour of Bashir's rule. (Farah 35)

A general insurrection (armed by Consul Bourée) - ref Farah - against the Egyptian soldiers broke out in and around Beirut from 27 May 1840 (Farah 35) where the population was generally in sympathy with the rebels. However on June 22 six frigates arrived from Alexandria with several thousand Egyptian troops, part of the Ottoman fleet which had deserted and gone over to Muhammed Ali's cause. (Ufford 110) By 13 July Bashir reported that the insurrection was over.(Farah 37) Along with an Albanian contingent the Egyptians made brutal reprisals against the villages in the mountains.(Ufford 111) The revolt petered out, and in any case Commodore Napier [or Wood?] didn't believe that the insurrection was of great importance since Amir Bashir had thrown in his lot with Muhammed Ali.(Ufford 114) Levant Papers p ???

On 25 June Palmerston ordered Stopford's fleet into the Eastern Mediterranean and to blockade the sea routes to Egypt.

Wood arrived off the the Syrian coast in Cyclops on 3 July(Farah p. 41) just as the revolt was being put down with brutal reprisals. Wood arrived with with a remarkable firman from the Sublime Porte, signed by the Grand Vizier, giving Wood authority 'for the regulation and settlement of the actual affairs of Mount Lebanon'. (Medlicott 107) Wood then cruised unmolested up and down the Syrian coast in Sir Charles Napier's Powerful, landing in a rowing boat, picking up news and distributing thousands of muskets in an effort to get revive the insurrection.(Ufford 112)

On 15 July 1840, the British government, which had colluded with Austria, Prussia, and Russia to sign the Convention of London, offered Mehmet Ali the hereditary rule of Egypt as part of the Ottoman Empire, but only if he withdrew from the Syrian hinterland and the coastal regions of Mount Lebanon, now Lebanon.

On 21 July Wood and Captain Napier received a report that Egyptian troops in the mountains were to return to Beirut, and went down the coast in Cyclops and landed at Zouk and Jebail. Wood transferred to the Powerful and Cyclops left Beirut, presumably for Vourla Bay on the E. coast of the Greek mainland, where Admiral Louis was stationed.

August-September 1840

An officer from the Cyclops reached the summit of the Great Pyramid in record time.

Mehmet Ali's Egyptian fleet was at Alexandria, along with most of the Turkish fleet which had defected to Ali's side in 1839.

Cyclops had returned to Alexandria and arrived inside the harbour by 6 August from Vourla, bearing a final ultimatum ultimatum to Muhammed Ali, and with directions to await the return of a reply. Ali immediately disappeared on the 7th for two to three weeks to Damietta in Charkié (old French name of province). It is probably during this period that an unnamed officer from Cyclops ascended the Great Pyramid of Giza in eight minutes.

Cyclops returned to Vourla with no satisfactory reply to the ultimatum, and on 1 September Lord Ponsonby, the British Ambassador in Constantinople received the news himself. On 3 September the Sultan issued another firman formally deposing the grand Amir, Muhammed Pasha, entrusting it to Colonel Henry Rose.(Farah p. 124) On 7 September Cyclops arrived off Beirut with definite news of the rejection of the ultimatum. Beirut was an essentially Christian town with a Christian Maronite garrison.(Ufford where?)

With the rejection of the ultimatum and the failure of diplomacy Adm. Stopford? /Adm. Louis /Commodore Napier began military operations.

Combined operations

HMS Princess Charlotte and HMS Powerful (left) at the English Camp at Jounieh in 1840. Princess Charlotte was the flagship of Admiral Sir Robert Stopford. Lithograph by C. F. de Brocktorff

When the commander of the British fleet Commodore Charles Napier had arrived off the Syrian coast in September in HMS Powerful, he had called for the population to rise up again against Mehmet Ali. The British armed the Lebanese, distributing around 25,000 muuskets and ammunition. Powerful', 'Ganges', Phoenix', Cyclops' & 'Hydra' were all involved. The British fleet blockaded Syrian and Egyptian ports and determined to remove Egyptian troops from Jounieh (D’Jounie), Jebail, Sidon, Beirut and Acre.

Tripoli

Batroun

Jbail

Jounieh

Beirut

Damour

Sidon

Tyre

Acre

Mount Lebanon

class=notpageimage|

Map of Lebanon, then part of Greater Syria. Clickable names link to the main action in the text.

Landings at Jounieh (Junaiyah, D’Jounie) - 9 September (Clowes p. 314)

Beirut bombarded but no effort to take it as the army wasn't ready.

The first significant action took place at the fort at Jbeil (variously Gebail or Jebail in contemporary reports), known in antiquity as Byblos Castle.

• 11 Sep 1840 Jebail -
• Good refs at p. 314 at www.archive.org/details/royalnavyhistory06clow, and
• The War in Syria, Volume 1, by Commodore Sir Charles Napier https://archive.org/details/warinsyriabycom00napigoog/page/n9 and gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53498/53498-h/53498-h.htm

HMS Dido and Carysfort were sent to Gebail to open communication with the Druze Mountaineers of Mount Lebanon, but as the Albanian garrison was still holding the old Castle they did not meet with a very friendly reception. [NB Mountaineers: refers generally to the peasantry of Mount Lebanon: both the Druze mountaineers rebelled against Ibrahim until 1839 (favoured by the British), but the Maronite Amir Bashir used his own Christian villagers against them, also called his own Mountaineers (Cunningham p74 n3)] Wood appears to have engineered a coalition of the Druze and Maronites

The Commodore (Napier) therefore reinforced them with HMS Cyclops on the 12th September, which brought four Companies of Marines (220) and 150 Lebanese (Druze) Mountaineers. Captain Robinson selected a beach to the South of the Castle as a landing place; under cover of the fire of the ships on the Castle and town, the troops were landed, but the fortifications could have defied the whole of the Mediterranean Fleet. 25 (Blumberg Marine history pdf)

Lieut. (later Admiral) Sidney Grenfell (who had also served as a Lieutenant in HMS Excellent under Thomas Hastings) mentioned re attack on Byblos Castle (called Gebail or Jebail in contemporary reports) for retrieving a British flag left in a garden as a signal, and storming of Sidon. , Also Carysfort and Dido involved.

Lt. George Giffard wounded in attack on Gebail, later captain of paddle frigate Leopard (1850) in Gulf of Bothnia. (NL 1855 p. 62.) Rear-Admiral George Giffard https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21533369.2004.9668337 See mention in List of Royal Navy admirals (1707–current)

• Stuff about Jebail: As the force was retiring it was discovered that an English flag, which had been planted on a garden wall by the pilot of the Cyclops as a signal to the ships, etc. etc.
• Although the attempt to take the castle by storm had not been successful, it was not found necessary to renew it on the following day, for when morning came it was found that the steady fire from the ships had proved too much for the nerves of the garrison, and that rather than face it another day they had vacated the position and stolen away under cover of the night.
• Lots and lots of correspondence & info about Syria 1840 and Cyclops, inc. Grenfell at Gebail:

"The Levant" - The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle Simpkin, Marshall, and Company, 1840. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MklWAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA801 from p. 801, and contd. p. 873

• Pic of attack on Gebail: Attack on D'Jebel 12th Sept. 1840 https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/129009.html

Lots of stuff re RM actions:

• The Asplin Military History Resources. James Bunting – Royal Marines

http://www.britishmedals.us/kevin/profiles/bunting.html

• History of the Royal Marines 1837-1914 by HE Blumberg (Minor editing by Alastair Donald)

https://rmhistorical.com/files/content/History%20of%20RM%20-%20Blumberg%20%26%20AJD.pdf

• 15 September 1840 - Batroun captured by HMS Hastings HMS Carysfort and HMS Cyclops. see p. 315 at www.archive.org/details/royalnavyhistory06clow.

17 Caiffa taken Haifa??

24 September- Tyre, Castor & Pique.

22 September: Wood had been on Cyclops with Captain Austin on a tour of Saida (Sidon) and had on board a number of powerful and influential Druze mountain chiefs. Wood proposed an expedition to Sir Robert Stopford to land at the Damour river and attack Bashir with 1,000 troops and the chiefs' mountaineers, once properly armed.

25 September - Sidon

At Sidon, Thunderer, Wasp, 4 steamers (Gorgon, Cyclops, Stromboli & Hydra), Austrian frigate Guerriera under Archduke Frederick, and Gulfideh (Turkish 20 gun corvette) were told off, with a landing force of 750 British Marines under Captains Arthur Morrison, R.M., and James Whylock, R.M., 100 Austrians, and 500 Turks.

Arthur Cumming Mate (later Admiral) of Cyclops, mentioned in dispatches for leading the Turkish troops to the assault at the storming of Sidon (NL 1855, p. 66)

J. T. Russell, Master (naval) of Cyclops storming of Sidon & bombardment of Beirut (Navy List 1855 ibid, p. 155)

The Naval General Service medal 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Syria of J. F. Guyon, Lieut. R.N., of the Cyclops was sold at auction in 2013 for £1200. + good bio.

Hmm, Cyclops seems not to be mentioned at all after Sidon.

• 26 Sep 1840 unsuccessful operations at Ruad and Tortosa - see p. 315 at www.archive.org/details/royalnavyhistory06clow.

On 6 October the British and Austrian fleets at Alexandria sailed for Beirut. Cyclops sailed the next day without Colonel Hodges who received news from Hydra that the Consuls had been recalled. Muhammed Ali very ill.

Beirut was attacked by Napier ("mad and infectious bravery") against Ibrahim Pasha, Battle of Boharsef - surrendered on 9 October.

• 22 Oct 1840 action off Tortosa. (Carysfort)

However, Cyclops was "detained" (for reasons unspecified) in Beyrout by 22 October, and was unable to take the mails for England straight across the Med, being faster than another ship going via Constantinople.

Bombardment of Acre

at the bombardment of Acre

27 Oct 1840 arrived Malta from Sidon.

Cyclops' engines were being repaired at Malta for 4 days in Oct, 15 days in Nov and the whole of December. See #Engine repairs, 1840–1843.

So that's why Cyclops wasn't at Acre, she was at the fixers. That's also why only Gorgon, Phoenix, Stromboli and Vesuvius took part.

• 3 Nov, 1840 bombardment of St. Jean d’Acre. - Most of the following is unnecessary since C. wasn't involved.

At Acre, The Egyptians didn't think that an attacking enemy would venture inside the shoal, and had built up the lower part of the embrasures with stones and sandbags, and were unable to depress their guns enough.

As part of the rewards for the campaign, Captain Horatio Austin, commander of Cyclops, received a C.B. The officers and crew received the St. Jean d’Acre medal, 1840 Plus good description of campaign.. Over 10,000 medals were awarded to 26 ships.

Outcomes?

After the defeat of the Egyptians the Amir Bashir was deposed, and Wood (who experienced difficulty with Sir Robert Stopford, who remained on board ship all the time [NB He was in Malta a lot of the time, did he ever actually turn up?] created an interim regime based on an unlikely Maronite-Druze co-operation under Turkish auspices. (Medlicott 107)

Big mess in 1846?

1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon and Damascus - possibly contains a load of bollox?

Crimean War 1865

Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

Liberation of Bulgaria, March 1878

Anyway, on with the immediate history of the Cyclops...

In the Med

On 3 February 1841 Charles Frederick Schomberg was appointed senior Lieutenant on Cyclops at Malta. (Captain Superintendents p. 93).

Lots of zooming around the Med.

14 Jul 1841 departed Palermo, leaving HMS Talbot and Locust (1840), who were sheltering from the current gales.(Captain Superintendents p. [94])

8 Feb 1842 arrived Malta, from Constantinople, with the Turkish medals for the British forces, for services in Syria: gold for senior officers, silver junior officers, and copper for the men. (Captain Superintendents p. 94)

HMS Formidable being careened in Malta Dockyard, 31 January 1843

25 Nov 1842 arrived Malta with HMS Geyser from Corfu and Zante and then proceeded to Barcelona with the Inconstant (1836) on the 27th "to protect British interests". (Captain Superintendents p. 94) ie Bombardment of Barcelona in which Spanish rebels forced elements of the Spanish Army to take refuge in the citadel above the city. On 3 December the army indiscriminately bombarded the town, killing around 20-30 rebels.

On 30 November 1842 HMS Formidable struck the ground heavily at the mouth of the Llobregat, 14 miles west of Barcelona, whilst doing about 4 knots. HMS Rodney assisted, along with many other vessels which arrived during the day. The Formidable was hauled off just before midnight, having thrown her guns overboard and started and pumped out her water. The ship was towed to Barcelona by Cyclops, and from there to Malta. The Cyclops assisted with the recovery of the guns although her rudder was not retrieved. (Captain Superintendents p. 94)

Having had further repairs to her engines at Malta in January the following year, Cyclops returned to England and was paid off at Woolwich on 16 May 1843.

Engine repairs, 1840–1843

Valletta harbour, Malta

Cyclops spent a considerable time at Malta Dockyard, having repairs made to her engines, boilers and paddle wheels.

List of repairs made to Cyclops' engines from October 1840 to January 1843: 4 days in Oct. 15 days in Nov. & whole of Dec. 1840. 7 days Jan, 13 days Feb 15 days March, 19 days April, 15 days June, 7 days July, 6 days Nov Dec 1841, 10 days Feb, Mar Apr 7 days Nov, 2 days Dec, 1842, 13 days Jan 1843. Detained 164 days (20% of the time - 2 years and 3 months = approx 820 days 164/820=0.2 =20%) : cost of repairs £800 7s 10d.

The same Seaward 320 hp engines were fitted to HMS Alecto (1839) and HMS Prometheus (1839), which proved to be even more costly in time and expense: between January 1840 and March 1843 Alecto's engines, boilers and paddle-wheels were being repaired for 392 days out of 1,1180 = 1/3 of the time. Total cost including spares and tools was £1158 4s. Prometheus was being repaired for 353 days out of 3 years from March 1840 to March 1843 = about 1/3 of the time at a cost of £1,012 1s.

Complete breakdown of repairs at Malta to the engines of Cyclops, Alecto, Prometheus, (Seaward 320 hp), Polyphemus (1840) and (Seaward 200 hp), Devastation (Maudslay, Sons and Field 400? hp), and Stromboli (1839) and Vesuvius (1839) (Robert Napier of Robert Napier and Sons, 280 hp)). The last two were much better behaved - Stromboli was under repair for 51 days for £68 and none at all for the whole year since March 1842: and Vesuvius a mere 38 days for £37

Particular service

The Monster Meeting at Clifden, 15 September 1843 by Joseph Haverty. Daniel O'Connell is in the centre addressing the crowds.

27 May 1843 Back in England, Cyclops was half-way through a major engine service at Woolwich when she was recommissioned for particular service, in this case to Ireland where the 68-year old Daniel O'Connell was agitating for the repeal of the Acts of Union 1800. His Repeal Association was dedicated to re-establishing the Irish Parliament which was abolished with the uniting of Ireland and Britain into one kingdom. Cyclops was again commanded by Captain Horatio Austin. Within 36 hours of commissioning she was ready for sea, and sailed with a reduced crew of 145 from the guard-ship at Sheerness for the purpose of manning her. She left for Cork with a detachment of Royal Marines from Chatham.

At Cork she embarked two companies of the 36th Foot to sail to Galway specifically 'in order to be in attendance for the Repeal meeting to be held in that town.' Accompanied by the steam tender Myrtle (1 gun, ex PO Firefly, 1831), she stopped off at the the River Shannon on 20 June with marine stores etc. for the Shannon Batteries which defended the estuary. such as on Inis Cathaigh or Tarbert Island.

On 25 June she anchored in Galway Bay at Shantalla, W. of Galway city to 'keep an eye' on one of O’Connell's last great open-air public rallies ('monster meetings') which attracted huge crowds. During his speech at Sliding Rock he drew attention to the Cyclops anchored in the bay and said that “The Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel and Lord Stanley could think of nothing better for Ireland than to arrest the old women who sang ballads in the street. They also sent a steamer here to prepare for this meeting, but I will send four old women and a cook to take her.” His last meeting was at Clifden in September, after which was arrested for treason and imprisoned.

A number of steam frigates are shown with HMY Victoria and Albert at Le Tréport in 1843.

In September 1843 Cyclops joined the royal squadron accompanying "Her Majesty's Marine Excursion" in HMY Victoria and Albert to Le Tréport, France at the beginning of her first first foreign visit to the Chateau d'Eu, and Ostende, Belgium. The V&A yacht was also built in Pembroke, launched April 1843.

Queen Victoria was the first British monarch to visit France since 1520.

FRANCE: Queen, Yacht, Treport, antique print, 1843, inc. Cyclops(?) on right
https://www.antiquemapsandprints.com/france-queen-yacht-treport-antique-print-1843-145131-p.asp

Other ships in the squadron included the paddle steamers HMS Lightning (1823), HMS Prometheus (1839) (Alecto-class paddle sloop), HMS Firebrand (1842) and HMS Fearless (1837).

The Observer, Monday, September 4, 1843, p. 2
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/258986426/

Illustrated London News, Volumes 3-4 16 September 1843 p. 188 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c3Y5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA188 - good etching of the steam fleet at Le Tréport - Cyclops, Tartarus, V&A, Picton?/Platon?, Ariel, Archimedes, (Mail) Prometheus, Napoleon (Fr.?)

Paid off 29 September 1843. On the same day both Captain Austin and the Master, J. T. Russell, wrote a letter of appreciation to the inventor Lt. William Roger RN, whose 'Small Palmed Anchor' had been of great use during the four years of the commission.

Channel Squadron

Firebrand (1842) with the Experimental Squadron of 1844

23 November 1843 - until paying off at Sheerness December 1846) by Captain William Frederick Lapidge.

27 December 1843: Cyclops, Lapidge, arr. Plymouth with Marines embarked at Chatham. Cyclops needed some defects made good, 29 Dec: Marines transferred to Radamanthus, along with Marines from the Plymouth division, and sailed for Cork the same day. 7 Jan 1844 - Cyclops towed HMS Nereus (coal & stores bound for Valparaiso) clear of the English Channel, then to Cork.

Lapidge bios

Navy List Feb 1855, p. 55 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dusNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA55
https://www.pdavis.nl/ShowBiog.php?id=615

Jan 1844 - Lieut. Robert Coote (later Commander-in-chief, China Station 1878–1881) to Cyclops.

1844: James Bedford (1862 Asst. Hydrographer to the Admiralty, 1869 Rear-Admiral) appointed additional Commander to Cyclops for the survey of W. coast of Ireland. 1847 additional Commander to HMS Crocodile (1825), W, Coast of Ireland.

George Augustus Bedford, (Commander, 1843) since 1 July, 1844, has been conducting, as Additional-Commander of the Cyclops and Crocodile, the survey of the West Coast of Ireland. NB Same career, different first name...

Experimental Squadron April - July 1846 (Capt. Lapidge)

14 August 1846 - huge rollers at St. Helena, destroyed many boats and much of the port.

Aground

Thorness Bay, Isle of Wight

Sunday, 1 November 1846: At about 0800hrs The steam frigate HMS Cyclops, outward bound for Lisbon, went aground in fog in Thorness Bay (north-west coast of the Isle of Wight) at the same time as the Pottinger, P&O paddle steamer returning from maiden voyage. The sea was completely calm, with "scarely a 'catspaw' to rumple the surface of the water."

Cyclops left Spithead around 0800 for Lisbon, carrying despatches for the British Embassy at Lisbon, under the charge of Colonel Wylde, an equerry. Fog came on shortly after passing Cowes - steered cautiously to the west, passing Egypt Point. Fog so thick that the lead was their only guide. The water shoaled from twelve to ten, then seven then four fathoms (18 feet - draught only about 12 feet). Determined it prudent to anchor, but in rounding for that purpose the ship suddenly grounded.

The topmast was struck and the main gaff lowered in order to shore her up. Low water at 3pm - luckily the bed was just a fine soft bed of mud. Some rocks, called the Gurnard Ledge lay between Cyclops and Pottinger. The shores of Cyclops gave way and she was lying over on her starboard bilge at about fifteen degrees.

Revenue cutter Adder (Commander Morgan) and the Rose, (Captain Hughes) came to their assistance, and she refloated about 9pm that evening after discharging 45 tons of water from boilers and tanks. Cyclops apparently received no damage and continued on her voyage.

Also fix List of shipwrecks in November 1846 - mostly nonsense.

November 1847: Cyclops and Cerberus were assigned as escort ships to the Dutch flagship Prince of Orange (Prins van Oranje), commanded by Prince Henry of the Netherlands ref from here which brought Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, suffering from terminal tuberculosis, to Madeira for his health.

Irish insurgency 1848

Coaling at Portsmouth.

29 July 1848 - 15 August 1848 Commanded (until paying off at Portsmouth) by Captain the Hon. George Fowler Hastings, conveying troops to Ireland (see Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848).

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Naval_Biographical_Dictionary/Austin,_Horatio_Thomas

On the 28th of July 1848, orders were received for the 35th Foot to be held in readiness for service in Ireland, in consequence of the very disturbed state of that country, and the next morning it was embarked on board her Majesty's ships Cyclops and Driver, and immediately sailed, the detachment of the regiment at Pendennis Castle being put on board the latter vessel on her way down Channel, arriving at Kingstown Harbour on the night of the 30th.

The Admiralty dispatched Cyclops, Driver and Birkenhead with Marines & Marine Artillery from Portsmouth, also Marines from Devonport, and stores. Cyclops, and a draft of men from the Excellent was temporarily commanded by Capt. Hall, with Lieut. E. A. T. Lloyd. Capt. Hastings took command of the Dragon, taking 200 Coast Guard men departed Portsmouth 1st August 1848, swapped with Capt. Hall in Ireland. Cyclops returned to England and was taken into the steam ordinary.

6 August 1848 - at Dublin along with Medusa (CG) Amphion, Driver, Dragon, Stromboli & Shearwater. There were 29 Navy vessels around the coast of Ireland.

Map also in Defending Ireland from the Irish: The Irish Executive’s reaction to Transatlantic Fenianism 1864-68. 2017 D Phil Thesis Jerome Devitt Trinity College Dublin pp 258, 270. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/60b5/0a4ab7139f77c3887b1d1ef71b4d34d3aaea.pdf

Anti-slavery operations

Main article: Blockade of Africa

8 September 1848 - February 1851 Commanded by Capt. Hastings, west coast of Africa in anti-slavery operations, took a number of prizes.

Appointments to Cyclops:

Lieut. A. B. Hodgkinson to Cyclops - later Lt.-Commander Hodgkinson, HMS Viper (1854) engaged in anti-slavery ops at St Paul de Loando (Luanda), Angola, some miles south of the mouth of the River Congo in 1858.
Lieut. Horace Bullock 
Master John T. Crout (ex Pantaloon, boarded a pirate slaver through the gun ports while they were pointed at the ship)
Second Master A. O. West
Midshipmen J Goodenough, A. Tweedale & W. Simpson. Midshipman (later Commodore) James Graham Goodenough joined Cyclops from HMS Collingwood in 1848. He went on to become Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station. 
Cadet George H. Parker
Master's assistant Edward Browne
Naval Instructor W. H. Macintosh
Asst. Surgeon John M. Trousdell, MD
Paymaster Henry R. Cole
Purser William L. Norcock

Evening, 30 September 1848: Mails left London for Cyclops at Portsmouth, bound for Madeira, Cape Verde Islands, Sierra Leone, and Ascension. 7 November 1848: Cyclops left Sierra Leone for Ascension Island.

Jamestown, the capital of Saint Helena

From 1840 St Helena became central to Britain's policy of suppressing the slave trade by military means, with the ships of the West Africa Squadron. From 1846-9 the Commodore of the Squadron was Charles Hotham, previously captain of the Gorgon when she ran aground in Montevideo Bay in 1843.

The Slave Trade (Brazil) Act 1845 gave British ships the right to detain Brazilian and stateless vessels engaged in the slave trade, whether or not they had slaves on board: Vice admiralty courts could try them for piracy as if they were British vessels. (Niekerk p. 90). The Judge of the VA court from 1842 to 1863 was Judge William Wilde (Niekerk p. 106) [NB not William Wilde, Oscar's father.]

The Vice-Admiralty court on St Helena condemned 450 vessels involved in the transatlantic slave trade, and liberated over 25,000 people, more than any other British possession.(Pearson p. 3) The court condemned the slaves to the Crown, who in turn granted them their freedom. Other places included Cape Colony, Mauritius and Bombay. Also vice-Admiralty courts in Sierra Leone and Cuba.(Pearson p. 6)

Ships flying the American flag were as liable as any other to be stopped and searched for evidence of slaving. Some were bona fide US vessels, others were in fact Brazilian with false papers. To the commanders of some US Navy ships the cruising strategy of British ships appeared ill-chosen to suppress the slave trade. Indeed, Royal Navy officers admitted it was principally aimed at earning prize money or a head bounty.

As early as 1808, by an Order-In-Council the British government had been offering a bounty of £40 per man, £30 per woman and £10 per child in lieu of prize money.(Niekerk p. 83) The crew of Cyclops received bounties for the capture of a number of vessels: Bom Successo on 25 December 1848, Esperanca on 10 May 1849, Sophia on 11 August 1849 and Apollo on 29 October 1849 (the last two in consort with HMS Rattler), Pilot on 10 January 1850, Ventura on 27 January 1850 (both with HMS Pluto), Sociedade on 17 June 1850, and an unnamed "slave brigantine" on 20 November 1850. The unnamed brigantine carried 609 slaves, who were liberated on St. Helena. They were in unusually physically good condition, unlike many others. Conditions in the depots on St. Helena were appalling - 4,760 out of 15,076 liberated Africans received between 1849 died, mostly of dysentery, pneumonia, and smallpox.

In around 1900 five of the last Liberated Africans still living on St. Helena were photographed by the amateur historian Emily Jackson. The men were aged over 70 and had arrived on the Cyclops between 1848 and 1851. The men were engaged as servants by officers from the St Helena Regiment garrisoned on the island. Their names were Duke Wellington and Blinky.

More explanation needed of the US-GB relationship. See eg Fehrenbacher.

In around April 1850 the Catherine, an American slaver bark was fired at by Cyclops. Slavery was still legal in southern US states, and an exchange of diplomatic letters took place between Captain Hastings and Captain Levin M. Powell of the USS John Adams of the Africa Squadron.

Also in 1850, the same Captain Powell in the John Adams found himself on a shoal in the S. Atlantic. The first intimation of this was a lowering of the temperature of the surface water. This fact was noted by Lieutenant F. M. Maury, Superintendent of the US Observatory. Cyclops would soon encounter this phenomenon during her time as a survey ship. Coincidentally, Maury's later dissatisfaction with Berryman's preparatory survey in 1853 for the first transatlantic telegraph cable led to Cyclops undertaking a second transatlantic survey in 1857.

Captain John St. George (2nd from right) whose company of Royal Artillery sailed to S. Africa on Cyclops. Early calotype c1846 by Hill & Adamson, one of the first photographs ever taken of soldiers.

22 Nov 1850 - went to the assistance of the Flamer wrecked 14 miles off coast of Monrovia near Salt Pun Light.

She arrived back in England in January 1851 with invalids and news of the loss of the Flamer. (Captain Superintendents, p. 95) and was paid off at Woolwich on the 28 January.

On 17 June 1851 she was commissioned as a troopship under Master George Hoffmeister, to replace HMS Megaera which had broken down on her maiden voyage and had to be towed back to Sheerness. She conveyed two Royal Artillery companies to the Cape of Good Hope, which she reached by 30 August.

Cyclops was paid off in December, underwent repairs and a refit at Sheerness during 1852, and was then placed in the Steam Reserve.

Russian war

Commissioned in Dec 1853.

Positions of the fleets at Sevastopol, showing Cyclops and Bellerophon off Cape Constantin.

16 December 1853 - bad OCR - "It is expected the Cyclops steam-frigate, commanded this day at gbosm^ (Chatham?) by Master-Commander Robert W. Roberts, will proceed to the Mediterranean, for the purpose of being employed in conveying stores or troops from the different places on that station, the service for which HMS Rhadamanthus (1832) was intended but subsequently countermanded."

Robert W. Roberts was previously acting Master on HMS Terrible in 1848, and on HMS Blenheim in 1850. 1855 Commanded by Master (naval) Robert W. Roberts.

Monday previous to 11 Feb 1854 - "The Cyclops, paddlewheel steam transport, [NB re-classified from steam frigate] - Master-Commander Robert W. Roberts, arrived at Spithead this morning from the eastward, en route to the Mediterranean station, with Royal Artillery, &c., on board." "At Spithead ; The Boscawen, 70, Captain Glanville ; Juno, 26, Captain Freemantle; Leopard (paddle), 18, Captain George Giffard; Frolic, 16, Captain Nolloth ; and Cyclops, Master-Commander Roberts."

Bombardment of Fort Constantine by HMS Rodney towed by HMS Spiteful, which may be partially concealing Cyclops, which towed Bellerophon into position.

At the 1st Bombardment of Sevastopol on 17 Oct 1854 Cyclops towed HMS Bellerophon into position to attack Fort Constantine. The next pair of ships in the line were HMS Rodney towed by HMS Spiteful, and Cyclops may be be the leftmost, two-masted, ship in the illustration.

"Master.— John F. Rees (1841), who was promoted from second master of HMS Dolphin in 1841, for the capture of a slaver ship in the boats of that vessel, and recently serving in HMS Vengeance 34, in the Black Sea, has been appointed to the Cyclops, 6, paddle, in the Black Sea, vice Roberts, invalided.

Paid off 15 September at Sheerness. December 1856, at Sheerness, not in commission. Navy List Dec 1856 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=v-UNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA147 Fitted out for Atlantic cable at a cost of £13,181

Laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable

The Niagara, HMS Valorous, HMS Gorgon (commanded by Capt. Dayman) and Agamemnon laying the cable at mid-ocean

April 1857 - September 1857 - Cyclops commanded by Lieutenant Commander Joseph Dayman, taking soundings of the N. Atlantic seabed in preparation for laying the first Transatlantic telegraph cable.

The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
By Henry Martyn Field
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wPUD3m-zwcYC&pg=PT50

RN Executive officers 1790 - 1879, "D"
Surname: Dayman, First Names : Joseph
http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Nbd/exec/D/Index.html

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Naval_Biographical_Dictionary/Dayman,_Joseph

https://www.pdavis.nl/Officers.htm - Dayman on HMS Hydra:

Dayman, Captain Joseph (hydrography) 
https://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=674

Ships meteorological Log no. 509 
30 May 1857 - 16 August 1857
https://library.metoffice.gov.uk/Portal/Default/en-GB/recordview/index/626155

British Geological Survey. Catalogue of holdings related to Royal Navy ships geomagnetic log books.  http://www.geomag.bgs.ac.uk/data_service/data/survey/shipslogs.html
Cyclops 	1857-1859 	D 	Worldwide 	        110 (Packet No.)
Cyclops 	1860 	D 	Indian and Atlantic Oceans 	110
Cyclops 	1861 	D 	Indian and Atlantic Oceans 	110

Hart Gimlette, "Tables of temperature, density of sea water, soundings and observations on specimens taken at various depths in the Atlantic on board the 'Cyclops' during June and July 1857," p. 21, in Thomas H. Huxley, "Deep Sea Soundings," Notebook 116, p. 20, Huxley Papers, Scientific Notebooks, 2nd Series.

1853 Lt Otway Berryman USN, requested by Matthew Fontaine Maury, surveys sea bed from Newfoundland to Ireland finding a plateau suitable for laying submarine cable, using the Brooke Sounding Machine

Notwithstanding this good work, the discarding of the use of time intervals, carelessness in preparing profile chart of the bottom, and the publication of the results in England before resort was made to the Navy Department, engineered differences — personal and official — between Berryman and Maury, which led the latter to so discredit the "Arctic's" work as to cause the British Admiralty to detail H. M. S. " Cyclops," Lieut. Dayman, li.N., to make a supplementary survey. Dayman had similar appliances to those used on board the "Arctic," but discarding the quills, fitted a valve in the specimen cup, and substituted wire for the rope or cord slings originally designed by Brooke. Brooke subsequently modified the rod so as to have only one trigger, insuring more certainty in its working. The same route was gone over, and the 34 casts made substantially agreed with those made by Berryman.

Actually Berryman handed over his soundings to the Telgegraph Company & the prees which published it. Maury was v annoyed, and attacked Berryman over everything - Berryman, the results of the survey, and the methods used in the charts published in 1858. He implored to British Govt. to send out a sounding vessel to check Berryman's work. The same ground was gone over by Lieutenant Dayman, in HMS Cyclops, in June and July 1857, and thirty-four soundings were taken, the depth being estimated by Massey’s sounding machine and a modification of Brooke’s machine ….

Maury propagated the myth of the Telegraphic Plateau, which appeared on maps until around 1925. Neither Berryman nor Dayman located the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

1857 HMS Cyclops surveys the great circle line Newfoundland to Ireland and confirms Lt Maury's findings

"On the 29th of July, 1857, the U.S.N. frigate Niagara arrived at Queenstown, having been preceded by H.M.S. Leopard and H.M.S. Cyclops, which latter steamer had taken the soundings of the intended bed of the Cable. The Niagara was accompanied by the U.S.N.S. Susquehanna, to act as her convoy. H.M.S. Agamemnon had already arrived.

On the evening of Friday, August 7th, the squadron sailed, and the Niagara commenced paying out the Cable very slowly. About four miles of the shore Cable had been payed out, when it became entangled with the machinery, by the carelessness of one of the men in charge, and broke;

This loss proved fatal to the first attempt to lay the Atlantic Cable, as on consultation among the officers and engineers it appeared to be unwise to renew the attempt with only 1,847 miles on board the ships, or an excess of 12 per cent. on the quantity required by the whole distance.

Nothing daunted by the failure, Mr. Field started off at once in H.M.S. Cyclops for England, and, on his arrival, urged the immediate renewal of the enterprise; but it was resolved by the directors in London to postpone it to the following year."

THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH (1865) by W. H. RUSSELL https://www.ajhw.co.uk/books/book371/book371.html

By June 1858 Dayman was in command of Gorgon, assisting HMS Agamemnon along with HMS Valorous, and USS Niagara while they laid the first transatlantic telegraphic cable. It was initiated 16 August 1858, but stopped working only a couple of weeks later, mostly because the two project chiefs in Britain and the US had different ideas about the amount of power to push down the cable.

The relative superiority of paddle steamers, with their remarkable ability to control their movement on the ocean swell (compared to the converted screw steamers Agamemnon & Niagara), meant they were of considerable use during the operation. Their ndependently powered paddles (one engine to each side), used skilfully, allowed a ship to maintain a fixed point over the sea bed in order to make soundings or take samples. The paddles also mitigated excessive rolling of the ship, making the paddle steamers a more stable survey platform than screw-powered vessels.

HMS "Valorous": Her Contribution to Galway Maritime History
Timothy Collins
Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society
Vol. 49 (1997), pp. 122-142 (21 pages), p. 124
Published by: Galway Archaeological & Historical Society
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25535676

In the autumn of 1858 Lieutenant Dayman, in H.M.S. Gorgon, took another line of soundings from the S.E. angle of Newfoundland to Fayal, and from Fayal to the Channel. In the following year, in H.M.S. Firebrand, he took another series across the Bay of Biscay and along the coast of Portugal to Malta.

Letter from Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, to his father Sir William Jackson Hooker, March 12 1845, asking William to send a seed sample of Falkland Island Tussac Grass is Poa flabellata via Dayman. D. was Artist and Mate of the HMS 'Erebus' on its voyage to Antarctica 1839--1843, Hooker considered him the best artist on the Antarctic voyage. JD Hooker was asst. surgeon on the Erebus.

See also Pullen, May 1862, for bringing specimens back to UK

T. H. Huxley and Bathybius haeckelii

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh what a disaster.

"When, in 1857, Capt. Dayman, of H.M.S. Cyclops, returned from his exploration of the bed of the Atlantic, some of his specimens of soundings were placed in the hands of Professor Huxley for examination. Dayman had already noticed the singular stickiness of the mud brought up by the lead, and Professor Thomas H. Huxley believed that this viscid condition arose from the diffusion through it of abundance of sarcode or protoplasm of a protozoic nature.

The mud, like much of what constitutes the bed of the Atlantic, consisted of chiefly accumulated shells of Globigerina bulloides (Update with info here) - themselves the skeletons of a protozoic sarcode. The Bathybius haeckelii, which Huxley named it in honour of Ernst Haeckel, appeared to occur in minute patches of gelatinous protoplasm, usually of irregular shape, but occasionally assuming roundish forms. It consisted of a transparent jelly containing innumerable, very minute, granules, many of which Huxley found to be equally soluble in dilute acetic acid and in strong, solutions of the caustic alkalis; but, in addition, Huxley noticed, adhering to the protoplasm—and occasionally embedded in it—numerous minute rounded bodies, soluble in acids, and which he described as Coccoliths."

This gave rise to speculative articles such as "What is Bathybius?" in The American Naturalist.

However, John Young Buchanan the chemist on the HMS Challenger expedition in 1875 (some time after Cyclops had been broken up) analysed a previously collected sample and noticed that it was a precipitate of calcium sulphate from the seawater that had reacted with the preservative liquid (alcohol), forming a gelatinous ooze which clung to particles as if ingesting them.<ref}

Journal Article
Huxley, Haeckel, and the Oceanographers: The Case of Bathybius haeckelii
Philip F. Rehbock
Isis
Vol. 66, No. 4 (Dec., 1975), pp. 504-533 (30 pages)
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society
https://www.jstor.org/stable/228925 </ref)

Huxley realised his mistake, acknowledging it a letter to Nature and fully at the 1879 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

The Red Sea telegraph cable

15 September 1857 Commanded by Captain (later Vice-Admiral) William Pullen, East Indies and China. Pullen in Cyclops was to spend a year surveying the bed of the Red Sea in preparation for an undersea telegraph cable to link Britain and India.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Zk1iCI0wMVwC&pg=PA443 ???

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hx1cei&view=plaintext&seq=546

On 6 November 1857, at 32° 10' N, 19° 7' W, Capt. Pullen threw a message in a bottle overboard, as part of an effort to understand the ocean currents. It was found on 6 December that year on the shore of Porto Santo Island, having travelled 120 miles E.N.E.

Steam winch "...the advantage of steam not only to keep the ship in position but to run the line in" deck engine did not appear to have the power to overcome the resistance - all the watch hauling on the line and assisting the flywheel at the same time that it could be accomplished."

"Steam was got up and the paddle-wheels connected". Sykes' Self-Registering thermometers.

Paddle-beam nearly rotted away.

During the voyage the Cyclops visited Tristan da Cunha, the world's remotest archipelago. She was bringing stores sent by the British government as an acknowledgement for the islanders' aid to shipwrecked mariners. There was a population of 35.

Apart from the full bunkers, she had 200 bags of coal on deck.

Wear and tear to the ship waterways and decks were leaaky - officers' quarters needed Damage to main steam pipes near the coal bunkers - rubbing against the iron stanchions supporting the deck.

"...and having nothing to say about the old Cyclops as a weatherly craft...a ship neither whose steaming nor sailing qualities are to be boasted of."

Admiralty orders - proceed to Hodeidah and Jeddah to see whether they offered conveniences for establishing electrical stations, the company proposing to lay a cable in sections between Aden and Suez - then Cosire and Suez. Also, keep within 100 fathoms - probs to minimise the use of cable. Jeddah 31 March

Pullen was the author of The Red Sea electric cable in which he claimed that a undersea route was preferable to the overland route favoured by Viscount Palmerston's government.

The Red Sea electric cable
Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle (London), 27 (1858): 353–57
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wkLIVWgk8yoC&pg=PA353
(Source from  http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=5781, notes)

Chart of the Red Sea surveyed by Captain T. Elwon, Commander R. Moresby and Lieutenants H.N. Pinching and T.G. Carless, Indian Navy 1830-4. Additional soundings by Captain W.J. S. Pullen and the officers of H.M.S. Cyclops, 1850. (1:2,000,000) Inset: Port Suakin surveyed by Captain W.J.S. Pullen, R.N. 1:20,000 [bar] https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/578710.html

On the voyage of H.M.S. 'Cyclops' in 1857-58, forty-one important observations of the temperature of the oceans were made by Captain Pullen in the North and South Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Red Sea, at depths of from 2400 to about 16,000 feet. It was on this voyage that the first regular precautions against pressure were taken in Britain. Captain Pullen was furnished, by order of the late Admiral Robert FitzRoy with some instruments constructed purposely for deep-sea observations by Negretti and Zambra.(Prestwich p. 608) Pullen was the first in Britain to confirm the observations of the continental observers that so low a temperature as 35 deg. F (about 2 deg. C) existed in the depths of intertropical seas.

The first British use of self-registering thermometer with bulb protected from pressure was by Capt. Pullen on the Cyclops. Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars used one in his circumnavigatory voyage of 1836–9.

Temps in the Red Sea: Surface in the months of March and April . . 78' to 86 FAHR. At 300 feet, 77 deg.: at 2552 feet, 71 deg: at 4068 feet, 70.5 deg.(Prestwich p. 622)

Capt. Joseph Dayman, on the Rattlesnake in 1846–50 had also made some measurements, but he gives little information about the instruments or how they were used.(Prestwich p. 607)

In June 1859 Cyclops rescued some 150 passengers from the Alma, a P&O iron screw mail steamer from Calcutta which had been wrecked on a reef off the island of Haruish (70 miles N. of Perim) in the Red Sea, shortly after leaving Aden. One of the passengers was Sir John Bowring, 4th Governor of Hong Kong and main cause of the Second Opium War, returning from his posting in disgrace. Most of the passengers boarded the Bombay, a P&O steamer.A letter from Kong Kong to Boston carried by the Alma and then Cyclops fetched HK$ 34,500 (about £3,500) at auction in 2010

The survey for the Red Sea telegraph cable was finished by July 1859:

Illustrated London News, July 9th, 1859. Letter from the Rev. Mr. Badger, Chaplain at Aden: "The services of Captain Pullen, also, of the Cyclops, should not be forgotten. For the last year he has been engaged in the arduous task of surveying the Red Sea in order to test its capabilities for submarine telegraphic communication and the final decision of our Government to sanction and subsidise this line, in preference to any other, is mainly to be attributed to his able and favourable reports. It remains to be seen what reward the country will bestow upon the man who, after having distinguished himself in two Arctic expeditions, has added a fresh claim upon the national gratitude for his important labours in the Red Sea."

But the cable broke before it was even put into service and was never actually used. Several sources say that the survey was not detailed enough (despite Pullen's year-long trip), and that the cable was laid too taut and over jagged rocks, and was easily attacked by the teredo worm and even sharks.

British routes to India by  Hoskins, Halford Lancaster, 1928 https://archive.org/details/britishroutestoi01hosk/page/376

Submarine Telegraph Cables: Business and Politics, 1838-1939
Author(s): Daniel R. Headrick and  Pascal Griset
Journal: The Business History Review, Vol. 75, No. 3 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 547-8
Published by: The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3116386

Report of pieces of the Red Sea cable exhibited at the 'Burra Institute Conversazione', Southern Australia.

A successful cable was laid in 1870 from Britain to India using the same route via the Med (Falmouth - Gibraltar?) and the Red Sea. The survey from Aden to Bombay (now Mumbai) was carried out in 1868 by HMS Hydra (1838).

In 1859 it was suggested in a letter to the government by P&O that Cyclops could be used to make a detailed survey of islands in the Red Sea suitable for building lighthouses (of which there none at the time), and also that navy hulks could be used as lightships.

• Fargher, James Andrew (September 2018). Steam, Cannon and Wires: The Royal Navy and British Imperialism in Northeastern Africa, 1799-1899 (PDF) (Ph.D Thesis). King's College London. Retrieved 9 November 2019.

Jeddah massacre

"It became known that Capt. Pullen intended to carry of the Irania, an English ship upon which the Turkish colours had been hoisted. The ship had been "worked out" and the boats of the Cyclops departed. Then the massacre began.

On 15 June 1858 Cyclops was lying off Jeddah harbour (now in Saudi Arabia) having almost finished the survey of the Red Sea submarine telegraph cable when Jeddah massacre of 1858 took place.

https://archive.org/details/historyofindiann02lowc/page/387

Journal Article The Jidda Massacre of 1858 W. L. Ochsenwald Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 13, No. 3 (Oct., 1977), pp. 314-326 (13 pages) p. 317 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4282661

Cyclops boats were fired upon by civilians. Cyclops left for Suez with refugees. and messages from the Vali for Istanbul. "The British foreign secretary ordered Pullen to go to Jidda and obtain summary punishment of the murderers, by use of force if necessary. The British threatened the Ottomans with the seizure of Jidda if justice was not speedily obtained. By 26 July the sultan's emissary had full powers, and Ottoman troops were on the way to Hijaz."

"In the meantime, the energetic Pullen had returned from Suez to Jidda with his orders to secure the execution of the murderers. The vali and the acting amir had a conference with him on 22 July. They pointed out to Pullen that although the murderers were known, all death sentences in the empire had to be confirmed by the sultan. Therefore they could not carry out the executions until the arrival of orders from Istanbul." Pullen bombarded the town on 25 July, firing over 100 shots, with seven known deaths. He didn't fire at the Ottoman fort, and they didn't fire back. Ismail Pasha arrived from Istanbul, 6th August eleven men accused of murder were executed.

pp 143ff.

An Ottoman commission decided in the end that the massacre had been planned, and on 12 January 1859, the muhtasib and the leader of the Had­ramis were publicly executed by decapitation. The kaimmakam was removed from office, taken to Istanbul, and sentenced to life imprisonment. The others who had been present at the council on 15 June as well as the qadi and Baghlaf were exiled from Jidda and were to be in prison or under supervision in Istanbul. Compensation of Turkish Lira 315,360 was paid to settle French and British claims, inc. TL 139,150 to the British.

Ochsenwald, William. Religion, society, and the state in Arabia. Ohio State University Press 1984 ISBN 0-8142-0366-3 https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/1811/24661/RELIGION_SOCIETY_AND_THE_STATE_IN_ARABIA.pdf

"As we afterwards learnt, it was their aim to lure us on, and the captain of the port, used the expression and gesture, Had you fallen into the hands of the mob, they would have eaten you."

Cyclops continued northwards with her sounding voyage on 25 June to Suez, and returned to Jeddah having received orders.

22nd Octr. HMS Chesapeake arrived at Jeddah on Friday 22nd at 5 P.M. having been piloted in through the outer reefs by Mr Mayes Master of the Cyclops.

On Wednesday Evening 25th Inst several officers from "Cyclops" and "Pelorus" assembled on board the "Chesapeake" and after much merry dancing while the Band was playing on the Main Deck, retired to the Ward room to finish the Evening with a bowl of punch, and a few concomitant songs [more details about celebrations and such...] https://tapasproject.org/shipboard-theatricals/files/1867-lithograph-edition-young-idea

Lietenant (later Admiral) John Maclear served on board HMS Cyclops as Mate during the outbreak at Jeddah in 1858. He commanded the round-the-world Challenger expedition 1872-6. He married Julia, a daughter of Sir John Herschel.

Survey of Ceylon coasts

Cyclops, commanded by William Pullen, continued with a survey of the S. and S.E. coasts of Ceylon from May to July 1860. (Pullen 1982, p. 445)

Cyclops struck a coral reef three times which entitled it to bear her name. ENE ½E from Potana Shoal in the Great Basses Reef. See also Great Basses Reef Lighthouse and Little Basses Reef Lighthouse

Description of Basses Reefs, and dangers on the SE coast of Ceylon
The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1860. November 1860, p. 595 
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1uVeY-e1IMQC&pg=PR5

Chart of the "Indian Ocean Ceylon east coast with enlarged plans of Trincomalie, Vendaloos Bay and the Batticoloa River...with additions and corrections by Capt WJS Pullen...HMS Cyclops 1860" https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/548141.html

1861 - Still with Pullen in East Indies & China.Navy List March 1861 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7ek9AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA162 </ref> The chaplain, the Rev Charles B Haslewood, was among the 189 men who drowned when HMS Orpheus was wrecked on 7 February 1863 near Auckland, New Zealand.

• Also in the Navy list for 1861 on the same page (p.162) as Cyclops: Thomas C. Pullen (William's brother) was Master Commanding HMS Dee (1832), the Navy's first steam vessel to carry significant armament. Thomas had been Master on one of the first searches (led by Sir Edward Belcher) for Franklin's lost expedition, 1852-1854. HMS North Star (Commander William Pullen), was the only one of five ships to return from the mission. Thomas Pullen may have been one of the last Masters Commanding in the Navy: in 1851 there were around 21 men with this rank. In 1861, there were only eight left. See also Master NB May be nonsense.

May 1861: McCleverty left Trincomalee on 11th March, for Madras. The Cyclops, Sampson, Magicienne, Cruiser, Inflexible, and Sparrowhawk, had all touched at the Cape of Good Hope on their way to England, and the Inflexible and Cruiser have since arrived at Portsmouth, and the Magicienne at Plymouth.

The Cyclops returned to England early in 1861. (DNB: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Pullen,_William_John_Samuel_(DNB00) Paid off 22 May 1861 at Sheerness into the Steam Reserve.

Pullen, like Dayman, was entrusted with letters and specimens from naturalists/biologists/collectors to take back to Britain: eg Lannea schimperi after May 1862

December 1862 - Sheerness

Fate

"The old steam-frigates of the Bulldog and Cyclops class are fast disappearing, their slow speed rendering them utterly worthless."

Sold for £5,000 on 26 January 1864 for breaking up by H. Castle & Sons (or Castle and Beech) at the Admiralty Shipbreaking Yard, Anchor and Hope Wharf, Charlton. Her semi-sister ships Firebrand, Sampson, and Dragon were also broken up by Castles in 1864.

Data

• Tons (bm) - 1195
• Displacement - 1960 tons
• Length - 190' 3"
• Breadth - 37' 6"
• Power - 320 hp (2x 160 hp engines)
• Guns - 2 x [[68-pounder gun], 95 cwt, 10 feet barrel on pivot slides and carriages

- 4 x 10-inch gun, 85 cwt, 9' 4" barrel, on pivot slides and carriages

- Guns upgraded twice more, see British Cruisers of the Victorian Era, Norman Friedman

• Complement - 235 officers and men, 25 marines
• Launched - 10 July 1839
• Completed - 19th November 1839
• Builder - Royal Dockyards, Pembroke Dock
• Sold - 26th January 1864
• Broken up - 1864

https://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=1309

See also

• List of frigate classes of the Royal Navy

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

• Caquet, P. E. (2016). The Orient, the Liberal Movement, and the Eastern Crisis of 1839-41. Springer. ISBN 9783319341026.

• Clowes, Wm. Laird (1901). The Royal Navy, a History from the Earliest Times to Present, Vol. 6. London: Samson Low, Marston and Co.

• Correspondence Relative to the Affairs of the Levant, Vol. 2. T.R. Harrison. 1841.

• Farah, Caesar E.; Farah, Caesar D. (2000). The Politics of Interventionism in Ottoman Lebanon, 1830-61. Centre for Lebanese Studies (Great Britain). I.B.Tauris. ISBN 9781860640568.

• Friedman, Norman (2012). British Cruisers of the Victorian Era. Barnsley, S. Yorkshire: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 9781473853126.

• Houghton, John (2012), The Navies of the World 1835-1840, Melbourne, retrieved 1 October 2019{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• Napier, Edward Elers, ed. (1862). The Life And Correspondence Of Admiral Sir Charles Napier, Vol. I. London: Hurst and Blackitt.

• Pullen, William J. S. (1862). "Voyage of HMS Cyclops: from England to the Cape - from the Cape to Aden - the Red Sea". The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1862: p. viii (index). {{cite journal}}: |page= has extra text (help)

• Pullen, William J. S. (1863). "Voyage of HMS Cyclops: the Red Sea [pt. 2]". The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1863: 217.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)&nbsp[NB Although the words "To be continued" appear at the foot of the article, there appear to have been no more instalments.]

• Ufford, Letitia W. (2007). The Pasha: How Mehemet Ali Defied the West, 1839-1841. McFarland. ISBN 9780786428939.

• Wilkinson, J. Gardner, Sir (1847). Hand-book for travellers in Egypt. London: J. Murray.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Winfield, Rif (2014). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1817-1863: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley, S. Yorkshire: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 9781473849624.

External links

• Video of a model of the engines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0p5pOZM5hY&feature=youtu.be

Category:Steam frigates of the Royal Navy Category:Ships built in Pembroke Dock Category:1839 ships Category:Victorian-era frigates of the United Kingdom Category:Crimean War naval ships of the United Kingdom