Colonial Despatches

HMS Modeste was an 18-gun wooden sloop; it sailed Victoria-area waters from 1844 to 1847.1 From 1837 to 1841 it was commanded by Commander Harry Eyres, off Spain, Mexico, the east coast of Africa, and China—it fought in the first Anglo-Chinese war.2

Commander Thomas Baillie sailed it throughout the Pacific from 1843 to 1845; from 1851 to 1853 Commander William Compton sailed it in Mediterranean waters, where it remained until 1854 under the command of Augustus Butler.3

• 1. Table of British Warships on the Northwest Coast of North America or in British Columbia Waters, 1778-1908, The Maritime Museum of BC.
• 2. Peter Davis, Modeste (1837), The Victorian Royal Navy (website). http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowShip.php?id=1781
• 3. Ibid.