The third HMS Dauntless was a wooden-hulled steam

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

 screw

Propeller

A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and a fluid is accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modeled by both Bernoulli's...

 frigate

Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

, launched at Portsmouth

HMNB Portsmouth

Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the British Royal Navy...

 in 1847.

History

First intended as a paddle vessel

Paddle steamer

A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...

, she was designed by John Fincham, and partially redesigned to take screw propulsion; in an effort to improve her initially disappointing performance she was lengthened in 1850 at Portsmouth, but her 'paddler' lines did not entirely suit her for propeller drive and she never got the best out of her engines. She achieved a best speed under steam of 10.3 knots (20.2 km/h). Her armament consisted of eighteen 32-pounder guns on her main deck

Deck (ship)

A deck is a permanent covering over a compartment or a hull of a ship. On a boat or ship, the primary deck is the horizontal structure which forms the 'roof' for the hull, which both strengthens the hull and serves as the primary working surface...

, four 10 inches (254 mm) shell

Shell (projectile)

A shell is a payload-carrying projectile, which, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot . Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used...

 guns and two 68-pounder carronade

Carronade

The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and anti-crew weapon...

s on her upper deck.

She first commissioned in August 1850 for service with the Experimental Squadron

Experimental Squadron (Royal Navy)

The Experimental Squadrons of the Royal Navy were groups of ships sent out in the 1830s and 1840s to test new techniques of ship design, armament, building and propulsion against old ones...

 to trial in company with other ships of novel design or technology, then in the summer of 1852 Dauntless was assigned to the North America and West Indies Station. In November that year, while on passage from the Virgin Islands

Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...

 to Barbados

Barbados

Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...

, an outbreak of yellow fever

Yellow fever

Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....

 killed ten of her crew, while a further 73 died of the disease in hospital at Barbados. There is a monument dedicated to these officers and men in the St. Matthias Anglican Church in Hastings, Barbados

Hastings, Barbados

Hastings is a small village and beach resort in the parish of Christ Church, Barbados on the south-western coast. It has a beautiful white sandy beach and is often a location for surfing on the island....

.

In 1854, with the start of the Crimean War

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

 Dauntless sailed with the Fleet to the Baltic

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

, then in December transferred to the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

 taking with her artillery details and stores. In February 1855 her gunfire helped to beat back a Russian

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 attack on Turkish

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 army positions at Eupatoria

Eupatoria

Yevpatoria or Eupatoria is a city in Crimea, Ukraine.-History:The first recorded settlement in the area, called Kerkinitis , was built by Greek colonists around 500 BC...

 and in April she was at the bombardment of Sevastopol, when one of her 68 pdr. guns burst, causing considerable damage to the ship, but somehow no casualties. Throughout the 1855 campaign on shore, the Dauntless provided officers and men for the Naval Brigade

Naval Brigade

A Naval Brigade is a body of sailors serving in a ground combat role to augment land forces.-Royal Navy:Within the Royal Navy, a Naval Brigade is a large temporary detachment of Royal Marines and of seamen from the Royal Navy formed to undertake operations on shore, particularly during the mid- to...

 manning the batteries facing the landward defences of Sebastopol, and in October 1855 she made her final contribution to the naval campaign when she took part in the bombardment of Kinburn

Battle of Kinburn (1855)

The Battle of Kinburn/Kil-Bouroun was a naval engagement during the final stage of the Crimean War. It took place on the tip of the Kinburn Peninsula on 17 October 1855...

.

She remained with the Mediterranean Fleet until she returned home to pay off in 1857. She recommissioned in 1859 to become the Coastguard base ship at Southampton

Southampton

Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

, then from 1864 transferred to the Humber

Humber

The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal River Ouse and the tidal River Trent. From here to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank...

 on the same service. From 1870 she was reduced to the status of a tender

Ship's tender

A ship's tender, usually referred to as a tender, is a boat, or a larger ship used to service a ship, generally by transporting people and/or supplies to and from shore or another ship...

 to the Humber Coastguard ship HMS Wyvern until she was finally laid up at Devonport

HMNB Devonport

Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...

 in 1878. She was sold for breaking on 1 May 1885.

Commanding officers

From	To	|Captain
7 August 1850	19 May 1853	| Captain Edward Pellew Halstead RN
28 December 1853	13 March 1857	| Captain Alfred Phillips Ryder Alfred Phillips Ryder Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Phillips Ryder KCB was a Royal Navy officer and an active member of the Church of England Purity Society.-Biography:...  RN
10 June 1859	12 August 1859	| Captain William Edmonstone RN
12 August 1859	23 August 1859	| Captain John Borlase RN
23 August 1859	January 1861	| Captain Leopold George Heath Leopold Heath Vice Admiral Sir Leopold George Heath KCB was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station.-Naval career:...  RN
January 1861	13 June 1862	| Captain James Willcox RN
13 June 1862	13 July 1862	| Captain Sherard Osborn Sherard Osborn Sherard Osborn , was a Royal Navy admiral and Arctic explorer.-Early life:Born in Madras, he was the son of an Indian army officer... RN
14 July 1862	1 April 1864	| Captain John Bourmaster Dickson RN
June 1864	30 September 1865	| Captain James Newburgh Strange RN
30 September 1865	19 November 1868	| Captain Edward Pelham Brenton Von Donop RN
19 November 1868	31 December 1869	| Captain Charles Codrington Forsyth RN