Forward was built by W & H Pitcher at
Northfleet,
Kent,
England, and was
launched on 8 December 1855. She was fitted for
Royal Navy service in
British Columbia in 1859 where she served along with her sister ship
HMS Grappler. Together they were involved in the
Lemalchi incident in the spring of 1863 when they hunted down and captured natives believed to have murdered some
Gulf Island settlers.
Forward used her guns to level a village on
Kuper Island; she then transported her captives to
Victoria where they were tried and hanged. She was then sold off to
Hill & Ready in
Esquimault, British Columbia in 1869 for use as a commercial vessel. As a commercial vessel, she went south to
Mexico for
oysters and was seized near
Mazatlan, Mexico, by a descendant of
Christopher Columbus,
Plácido Vega y Daza. Crewed by Mexicans, she preyed on shipping and coastal settlements in the
Gulf of California. The U.S. Navy considered her a
pirate ship, and sent the sloop-of-war USS
Mohican in pursuit of her. A
launch and five
cutters from
Mohican discovered
Forward beached in the
Teacapan Estuary at
Boca Teacapan,
Sinaloa, Mexico, and destroyed her on 17 June 1870 in the
Battle of Boca Teacapan. ==References==