HMS Highflyer (1851)

Highflyer was ordered as a small wooden frigate to a design by the Surveyor's Department of the Admiralty on 25 April 1847; she and her sister Esk were re-designated as corvettes in 1854. In common with other screw corvettes of the time, she was envisaged as a steam auxiliary, intended to cruise under sail with the steam engine available for assistance. Commensurately she was provided with a full square sailing rig. Her geared two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine, provided by Maudslay, Sons & Field, developed and drove a single screw. ==Construction==

The design was approved in November 1849, and she was laid down in January 1850 in the Leamouth Wharf yard of C J Mare & Co. on the River Thames. She was launched on 18 August 1851 and commissioned at Woolwich on 15 March 1852 under Captain Henry James Matson. The cost of building came to £27,105 for the hull, £17,431 for the machinery and £11,539 for fitting out. ==Service history==

After commissioning, Highflyer completed fitting out on 10 April 1852. Initially she served on the North America and West Indies Station; her first commander, Captain Matson, died on 14 December 1852, and she was then placed under the command of Captain Edmund Heathcote. Fleet Review on 15 July 1853On 1 April 1853 command passed to Captain John Moore, under whom she sailed to join the Mediterranean Fleet after taking part in the 1853 Naval Review as part of the starboard division,. She was deployed in 1854 to the Black Sea during the Crimean War. She paid off for the last time on 31 August 1868 and was broken up at Portsmouth in May 1871. ==Citations==