HMS Termagant, 1822-1824 [renamed Herald, fate: 1862]
HMS Herald was launched at Kochi, India, in 1822 as HMS Termagant, at which time it was a 28-gun, 454-tonne fighting vessel.1 In 1824, it was transformed into an 8-gun survey ship and renamed Herald.2
As Herald, it was commanded by Kellet for survey work off Central America in 1848 until, suddenly, Kellett was ordered to sail it to the Arctic Ocean as part of the search party for the missing Franklin expedition; indeed, Kellett would make three attempts to rescue Franklin, from 1848-50, but to no avail.3 In 1851, Kellett returned the Herald to England, whereafter, Captain Henry Denham employed it to survey the Fijian Islands until it was decommissioned in 1862.4
Pelly, Sir John Henry to Grey, Right Honorable Second Baronet Sir George 11 December 1846, CO 305:1, no. 1666, 83, from 1846, mentions that the Herald, along with the Pandora, was to provide a Survey of the Southern Shore of Vancouvers Island.
  • 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 259.
  • 2. Ibid.
  • 3. Ibid.
  • 4. Ibid.
Mentions of this vessel in the documents