HMS Herald (1822)

HMS Herald was an Atholl-class 28-gun sixth-rate corvette of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1821 as HMS Termagant, commissioned in 1824 as Herald and converted to a survey ship in 1845. After serving as a chapel ship from 1861, she was sold for breaking in 1862.

Construction
Launched at the East India Company dockyard at Cochin, British India on 15 November 1821, Termagant had a tonnage of 499 91/94 bm. She was 113 ft long on the gundeck, 31 ft in beam and had a depth in hold of 8 ft. She carried twenty 32-pounder carronades, six 18-pounder carronades and two 9-pounder long guns. She was renamed Herald on 15 May 1824, and commissioned on 16 July 1824.

Service
On 29 April 1840 HMS Herald, under Captain Joseph Nias, sailed with Major Bunbury of the 80th Regiment (appointed by Governor William Hobson as Commissioner) and Edward Marsh Williams as interpreter, to take a copy of the Treaty of Waitangi (which is known as the ‘Herald-Bunbury’ copy) to the South Island of New Zealand to obtained signatures from Māori chiefs as part the process of claiming British sovereignty over New Zealand.

Herald saw service in the East Indies and served during the First Anglo-Chinese War (1839–42), which is popularly known as the First Opium War.

Survey voyages
She was converted to a survey ship in 1845, serving in the Pacific. She conducted a survey of the coast of British Columbia after the Oregon boundary dispute with the United States.

In 1845 Henry Kellett was appointed captain of Herald, which was assigned in 1848 to join the search for Sir John Franklin who had been exploring the Northwest Passage. During this voyage Herald sailed through the Bering Strait across the Chukchi Sea and discovered Herald Island, which Kellett named after his ship.

Under the command of Captain Henry Mangles Denham HMS Herald carried out a survey of the Australian coast and Fiji Islands, continuing the mission of HMS Rattlesnake. The naturalists on the voyage were John MacGillivray (1821–1867), William Milne (botanist) and Denis Macdonald as Assistant Surgeon-zoologist. However following disagreements with the captain, John MacGillivray disembarked at Sydney in January 1854.

She was the first sailing ship to enter the Fitzroy Dock, Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour.

Fate
Herald was converted to a chapel ship and was used as a floating church in Shoreham in 1861. She was sold to Castle for breaking on 28 April 1862.