Flagship in North America, Cape of Good Hope and the East Indies Although ordered in 1816 and laid down in 1818,
Winchester was not launched until 21 June 1822, and commissioned on 16 September later that year. In October 1829 Captain
Charles Austen, brother of the novelist
Jane Austen, took command in Bermuda where
Winchester was the
flagship on the
North America and West Indies Station. In 1832 Lord Willeam Paget commanded her until June 1833 when she was paid off. Between 1834 and 1838 she was on the East Indies station and under the command of Captain
Edward Sparshott. From 1842 she served as the flagship on the
Cape of Good Hope Station, under the command of Captain
Charles Eden. In 1852 Captain
Granville Gower Loch commissioned
Winchester to relieve as flagship in China and the East Indies. During 1852 and 1853 she took part in military operations on coast of Burma during the
Second Burmese War. Shortly after arriving at
Rangoon Rear-Admiral
Charles Austen died; Commodore
George Lambert was off the coast, and the command on the
Irrawaddy River devolved on Loch. The subsequent action resolved itself into keeping the river clear and driving the Burmese out of such positions as they occupied on its banks. Rear Admiral
Fleetwood Pellew raised his flag aboard
Winchester in April 1853, and by September 1854 he was off
Hong Kong to take command of the
East Indies and China Station. Here he seems to have decided that he would not allow shore leave until the dangerous season for fevers and infections had passed, but neglected to make his reasoning known to his men. The crew were apparently in a mutinous mood, so Pellew ordered them to beat to quarters. When they refused, he sent the officers onto the lower deck to force them up at sword point. Several of the crew were wounded and the nascent mutiny was quashed. From 11 May 1854
Winchester was the flagship of Rear Admiral
Sir James Stirling. Shortly afterwards news arrived that war had been declared on Russia. Stirling was anxious to prevent Russian ships from sheltering in Japanese ports and menacing allied shipping and led a squadron of four vessels to
Nagasaki where he concluded the
Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty with representatives of the
Tokugawa shogunate.
Winchester subsequently was involved in the
Second Opium War, when her boats and some of her ship's company were used in the attack on
Canton.
Discovery of Russian coast In August 1855, during the
Crimean War,
Winchester and entered and first charted the waters of
Peter the Great Gulf, while searching for the Russian squadron commanded by
Vasily Zavoyko. ==Training ship
Conway==