Colonial Despatches

The HMS sulphurSulphur, a 381-tonne, 32 m bomb vessel, was launched in January of 1826 and disposed of in 1857.1 It was the last bomb vessel in the Navy List.2 sulphurSulphur was sent the vessel to survey the Pacific coast in 1835;3 it arrived in Nootka Sound in October, 1837.3

In 1839, under the command of Captain Edward Belcher, the sulphurSulphur narrowly [escaped] destruction on what would later be named Peacock Spit, as it surveyed the bar in the Columbia River with its escort, the starlingStarling.5 Captain Belcher would later admit he was given secret instructions to collect information on the dispute between the British and the United States over the Oregon Territory .6

Beginning in 1841, the sulphurSulphur participated in several naval engagements in China, before it returned to England,7 where it was used in harbour service until it was dismantled in 1857.8

• 1. Sulphur, 1826, Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels.
• 2. J. J. Colledge, Ships of the Royal Navy: An Historical Index (New York, NY: A. M. Kelley, 1969), vol 1, 532.
• 3. Ibid.
• 4. Sulphur, Ships of the Old Navy.
• 5. E. W. Wright, ed., Lewis and Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (Portland, OR: The Lewis and Dryden Printing Company, 1895), 14-15.
• 6. Sulphur, Ships of the Old Navy.
• 7. HMS Sulphur, Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels.
• 8. Ibid.