HMS Malacca (1853)

HMS Malacca was a 17-gun sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1853. She later served as the Tsukuba of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Malacca was built to a design drawn up by the Surveyor’s Department and approved in 1848. She was ordered on 9 November 1847 from a Mr Mould, at Moulmein, Burma and was laid down on 29 May 1849. She was launched on 9 April 1853, and completed by Mr Ladd, the Government Inspector, the original builder, Mr Mould, having failed in the meantime. She was sailed to Britain in May 1853, where she was given her engines and her fitting out was completed at Chatham Dockyard. She was undocked on 8 August 1854.

After several years of service she was re-engined in 1862, and reclassified as a corvette at about this time. After serving for a further seven years, she was sold in June 1869 to E. Bates. Bates sold her later that year to the Imperial Japanese Navy, who took her into service as the Tsukuba. She served as a stationary training ship after about 1900, and was broken up in 1906.