HMS Cruizer (1852)

HMS Cruizer was a 17-gun wooden screw sloop, the name-ship of the Cruizer class of the Royal Navy, launched at the Royal Dockyard, Deptford in 1852. The spelling of her name was formally altered to HMS Cruiser in 1857. She became a sail training vessel in 1872 and was renamed HMS Lark. She was eventually sold for breaking in 1912.

History
Her first years of service were spent on the China station, during which a party of her crew took part in the Battle of Fatshan Creek in 1857. Her commander, Charles Fellowes, was the first man over the walls of Canton when the city was taken, and the ship saw further action on the Yangtse river, including the attack on the Taku Forts on the Peiho river in 1858.



In 1860, under the command of John Bythesea she surveyed the Gulf of Pechili to prepare moorings for the Allied fleet to disembark troops for the advance on Peking.

Cruiser was laid up in England in 1867, before being recommissioned for the Mediterranean station.

Disposal
In 1872, having had her guns and engine removed, she became a sail training ship and was renamed Lark, in which capacity she served until at least 1903. She was finally sold for breaking up at Malta in 1912.