Nemesis (1839)

Nemesis was the first British ocean-going iron warship. Launched in 1839 for the East India Company, the British used her to great effect in the First Anglo-Chinese War under William Hutcheon Hall. The Chinese referred to her as the "devil ship".

Construction
Nemesis was built by British shipbuilding company Birkenhead Iron Works in three months. She had a length of 184 ft, a beam of 29 ft, a draught of 6 ft, and a burthen of 660 tons. She was powered by two sixty horsepower Forrester engines. She was armed with two pivot-mounted 32 pounder and four 6 pounder guns, and a rocket launcher. The steam- and sail-powered ship was particularly effective in China because her shallow draught allowed her to travel into rivers to pursue and engage other vessels and targets.

Her watertight bulkheads were the first to be used in a warship. They enabled her to survive the hull damage she sustained during sea trials and en route to China in 1840. That year, Nemesis became the first iron ship to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, aided by techniques developed the year before by Sir George Airy, the Astronomer Royal, to adjust a compass for the effect of an iron hull. The adjustments weren't done very well with the result that the ship's compass performed poorly throughout its career.

China
Nemesis arrived off the coast of China in late 1840. A British officer wrote that the outbreak of the First Opium War "was considered an extremely favourable opportunity for testing the advantages or otherwise of iron steam-vessels." She first saw action in the Second Battle of Chuenpee on 7 January 1841 against the Chinese fleet near the forts at the Bocca Tigris. In a later battle, Nemesis sank Cambridge, an American merchantman that had been purchased by the Chinese. She accompanied the British fleet up river and due to her shallow draught was able to move through shallow water to aid the capture of Canton.

Later career
After the First Opium War, Nemesis was tasked with the suppression of pirates in Indonesia and the Philippines.

In fiction
James Clavell's novel Tai-Pan refers to a groundbreaking iron ship called Nemesis taking part in the First Opium War. However, the fictionalized vessel is a Royal Navy ship that arrived to assist in the shallow Chinese rivers that would be traversed to gain access to inland China.