HMS Pallas (1816)

Pallas was placed in ordinary after being completed, the Napoleonic Wars having ended. She continued in this manner until 28 August 1828 when she was commissioned for the first time under the command of Captain Adolphus FitzClarence. The frigate was fitted for sea service at Portsmouth between October and December, at the cost of £15,472.^[12] At this time the Liberal Wars were beginning in Portugal, and some of the military Liberals had taken refuge in Britain. From British ports they then sailed to capture the Azores from the Miguelists. Pallas was assigned as lead ship of a squadron sent to the Azores to stop the Liberals from succeeding in this plan, sailing on 16 December.^[13][14] FitzClarence, as senior officer, instituted a blockade of the Azores, staying there until February 1829 when Pallas returned to Britain. Upon his return FitzClarence had to write rebuttals to the Admiralty after two reports were published in newspapers, saying that he had let an American ship through the blockade to land 300 Portuguese soldiers, and that he and three of Pallas's crew had been wounded in a skirmish over watering agreements with the Portuguese. FitzClarence argued that both reports were exaggerated.^[13]

Pallas was next assigned to convey Lieutenant-General George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie and his wife to Calcutta, as Dalhousie had been appointed the new Commander-in-Chief, India.^[12][13] Also on board was John Turner, the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta. The ship departed on 20 July, first stopping at Madeira, Rio de Janeiro, and then the Cape of Good Hope where she landed £35,000 of silver coin. Pallas arrived at Calcutta on 9 December. The frigate stayed in India for a month before embarking the retiring Commander-in-Chief, General Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere, for the return journey. The initial leg of this required a steamship to pull Pallas out of the Hooghly River. The ship made several stops on the return journey, calling at the Cape, St Helena, and Ascension Island. During the journey several animals were taken on board, including turtles, antelopes, a cheetah, elk, Angora goat, and Bengal tiger, the latter of which was tame enough to walk freely around Pallas's deck.^[13][15]

The frigate arrived at Spithead on 30 April 1830, having lost none of her crew to sickness during the ten-month voyage. Pallas was then sent to Nova Scotia in July, tasked with conveying FitzClarence's sister Mary Fox and her husband Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Richard Fox back to Britain. The ship returned to Britain with the Fox family on 8 September, and FitzClarence relinquished command the next day.^[13][15]

Captain Manley Hall Dixon took command of Pallas on 16 September, sailing the ship to her new station at Plymouth.^[16][17] She sailed to the Mediterranean on 7 December to replace the 46-gun frigate HMS Madagascar on station.^[18] Pallas sailed from Malta on 2 February 1831 carrying on board 235 survivors from the 90th Regiment of Foot who had been wrecked in the transport ship Countess of Harcourt. On 8 February a virulent but non-fatal fever broke out on the frigate, being caught by 100 members of the crew and 36 of the soldiers. Pallas anchored off Gibraltar on 12 February and was quarantined before leaving for Britain on 16 February, during which journey the fever subsided. She arrived at Portsmouth on 2 March and was again quarantined, before being finally allowed to disembark her passengers two days later at Spithead.^[19]

Pallas subsequently joined the West Indies Station, having arrived at Bermuda by 1 October.^[20] She was still serving there on 20 January 1832 when Captain William Walpole took over command.^[21][22] Pallas moved from Barbados to Jamaica in July 1833, with Walpole become the senior naval officer at the latter island.^[23] In early 1834 Pallas was relieved on the West Indies Station by the 42-gun frigate HMS Belvidera; on 15 March Walpole sailed Pallas from Port Royal, conveying the prior Governor of Jamaica, Constantine Phipps, 2nd Earl of Mulgrave, back to Britain. They arrived at Portsmouth on 24 April.^[24][25] The ship was then paid off on 16 May.^[12][26] Early in 1836 the ship was hulked at Portsmouth, before being converted into a coal depot at Plymouth Dockyard between September and November.^[8][12] Pallas served as a coal depot for the next twenty-four years, being retired in 1860. She was sold for £1,426 to Marshall on 11 January 1862.^[12]

• Gardiner, Robert (1999). Warships of the Napoleonic Era. London: Chatham. ISBN 1-86176-117-1.
• Gardiner, Robert (2000). Frigates of the Napoleonic Wars. London: Chatham. ISBN 1-86176-135-X.
• Manning, T. D.; Walker, C. F. (1959). British Warship Names. London: Putnam. OCLC 213798232.
• O'Byrne, William R. (1849a). "FitzClarence, Adolphus" . A Naval Biographical Dictionary. London: John Murray. p. 361.
• O'Byrne, William R. (1849b). "Dixon, Manley Hall" . A Naval Biographical Dictionary. London: John Murray. pp. 292–293.
• O'Byrne, William R. (1849c). "Walpole, William" . A Naval Biographical Dictionary. London: John Murray. pp. 1244–1245.
• Owen, Hugh (February 1997). "'I Shall Make Five Sons of Mine Fight for their King and Country': The Naval Sons of William IV and Mrs Jordan". The Mariner's Mirror. 83 (1): 41–61. doi:10.1080/00253359.1997.10656628.
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-78346-926-0.
• Winfield, Rif (2014). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1817–1863: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84832-169-4.