Harman Patil (Editor)

HMS Topaze (1858)

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Name
  
HMS Topaze

Commissioned
  
11 June 1859

Class and type
  
Liffey class frigate

Weight
  
3,978 tons

Launched
  
12 May 1858, Devonport

Decommissioned
  
28 June 1878

Length
  
72 m

HMS Topaze (1858) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Fate
  
Sold on 14 February 1884 and broken up at Charlton

HMS Topaze was a 51-gun Liffey class wooden screw frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 12 May 1858, at Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth.

Her crew assisted in the building of the Race Rocks Lighthouse in British Columbia, Canada, and laid a bronze tablet in 1868 at the Juan Fernández Islands commemorating the stay of marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk. On the same voyage, the band from HMS Topaze played for the dedication of Congregation Emanu-El, now the oldest surviving synagogue building in Canada.

The voyage to Easter Island in 1868 saw the crew steal the Moai Moai Hava and Hoa Hakananai'a and ship them to Britain, where Hoa Hakananai'a can now be seen in the British Museum.

The ship is notable for an incident when Agnes Weston came on board to plead the cause of Temperance; as she recalled in her memoire:

The Captain of H.M.S. Topaze invited me on board, and the men were mustered on the main deck; they listened very attentively. When I had finished speaking I asked the Captain, "Whether any men that wished it might join the Royal Naval Temperance Society?" He gave a cordial assent, and my eyes roved round to see on what place I could put the pledge-book. I saw what I thought to be a bread tub standing not far off. "Could I have that bread tub?" I asked; "it would make a nice little table turned over." I saw the Captain smile and tug at his moustache, and the men seemed on the brink of bursting into laughter. "Yes," he answered, "anything that we have is at your command. Here, men, a couple of hands roll over that grog-tub."

Topaze was sold on 14 February 1884 and broken up at Charlton.

References

HMS Topaze (1858) Wikipedia