HMS Coromandel (1855)

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HMS Coromandel (1855) began life as the P&O passenger and cargo steamer Tartar. Built by Thomas & Robert White in Cowes, Isle of Wight, she was launched on 7 July 1853 and cost £17,567. Tartar had a shallow wooden hull strengthened with diagonal planking and iron supports. She used sails and a trunk geared steam engine built by Maudsley, Sons & Field, delivering about 150 n.h.p. (550–557 ihp) and a speed of around 12 knots. In September 1853 she sailed from Southampton to the Far East to support P&O’s China service; in 1854 she helped at the Paracel Islands to assist the ship Douro, but the salvage work was abandoned.

The Royal Navy bought the ship in 1855 and renamed her HMS Coromandel, after the Coromandel Coast. She served as a wooden paddle dispatch vessel, about 171 tons (net register) with a 303-ton builder’s measure, 172.8 ft long, 22.6 ft beam, and 11.6 ft depth. Her propulsion combined sail with a trunk geared steam engine.

Coromandel saw extensive action in the Second Opium War (Arrow War) in China. She fired the first shot of the war in the Canton operation on 23 October 1856, and took part in the Battle of Fatshan Creek in 1857, where she ran aground and served as the flagship for Rear-Admiral Michael Seymour. From July 1857 she acted as a tender to HMS Chesapeake. She fought in all three Battles of the Taku Forts (1858, 1859, 1860); in the 1859 battle she was sunk but was later raised, repaired, and returned to service. She was the flagship of Vice-Admiral James Hope on 23 August 1859.

In later years Coromandel served as a tender to other ships, including HMS Imperieuse (1861) and HMS Euryalus (1862). It is unclear whether she joined the bombardments of Kagoshima (1863) or Shimonoseki (1864) with Euryalus.

The Navy sold Coromandel in 1866 to R. Byrne & Co. of Hong Kong. In 1867 she was sold to Kishu, Japan, and renamed Naruto. Glover & Co. of Hong Kong bought her in 1868 and converted her to screw propulsion. After changing hands several times—Wright & Co., Iwatani Shozo, Hunt & Co. (for the Netherlands Trading Society)—she underwent extensive repairs. She spent time laid up at Yokohama with hull damage from white ants and was finally scrapped in 1876.