Built as a wooden paddle vessel by Chatham Drydock for the Royal Navy.
18 March 1841 ordered.
15 November 1841 keel laid down.
25 July 1842 launched under the name HMS VIRAGO one of the Driver class.
Displacement 1.590 tons, 1.059 ton (BM). Dim. 54.86 x 10.97 x 6.4m.
Powered by one 2-cyl. direct acting steam engine, manufactured by Boulton, Watt & Co., 300 nhp., speed 9.5 knots.
Armament 2 – 10 inch on pivots. 2 – 68pdr., 2 – 42pdr. carronades.
Crew 149, later increased to 175.
May 1843 commissioned, under command of Comdr. George Graham Otway
29 July 1843 completed, building cost £42.713.
The class was designed by Sir William Symonds.
After completing stationed in the Mediterranean where she arrived in November 1843.
20 May 1846 command taken over by Comdr. John Lunn, still in the Mediterranean.
16 November 1847 paid off at Woolwich, U.K. and put in reserve.
05 August 1851 re-commissioned, under command of Comdr. William Houston Stewart, sailed for the Pacific.
She recaptured the Chilean colony of Punta Arenas, which was taken over by mutineers, and seized also the former British schooner Eliza Cornish, which was captured by the mutineers in Punta Arenas in the Straits of Magellan.
27 January 1853 she visited Pitcairn Island, the first steam vessel that arrived on the Pitcairn. When she left a few days later the Magistrate Matthew McCoy died when the Pitcairners wanted to fire an old BOUNTY cannon in a farewell salute. The ramrod happened to contain a nail, which caused a spark that ignited the powder in the cannon, killing McCoy.
05 April 1853 command taken over by Comdr. Edward Marshall stationed in the Pacific.
1854 Command taken over by Comdr. James Charles Prevost, on the west coast of Canada, when gold was discovered in Queen Charlotte Sound, the crew of the VIRAGO made surveys of the harbours in the islands, adjacent coastal channels and the Port Simpson area.
From August till September 1854 was a unit of the French-Anglo Pacific squadron, which took part in the Crimea War including the operations at Petropavlovski, the main town in Kamchatka.
Returned home in 1855 for repair and a refit.
06 May 1856 under command of Comdr. Henry Vachell Haggard on the southeast coast of America.
15 March 1858 under command of Comdr. Montagu Buccleuch Dunn, stationed at Devonport, U.K.
30 November 1866 together with HMS CHARYBDIS sailed for Australia as a unit of the Australian Station.
May 1867 arrived on the Australian Station. Took much survey work in the Australian and New Zealand waters, including Norfolk Island.
25 August 1869 command taken over by Comdr. Elibank Harley Murray.
When in February 1871 HMS CLEO grounded on an uncharted rock in Bligh Sound on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand, she rendered assistance by making temporary repairs to the CLEO and escorted her to Wellington for repairs.
28 June 1871 sailed from Sydney bound for England, arriving in Sheerness early autumn, after arrival paid off and laid up.
1876 Deleted from the navy list, and scrapped in September 1876 at Chatham.
Pitcairn Island 1988 90c sg 323, scott 306a.
Sources: Ships of the Australia Station by John Bastock. http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=2260
The Sail and Steam Navy List by Lyon & Riff.