Wasp, 1850
Type: Sloop ; Armament 14
Launched : 28 May 1850 ; Disposal date or year : 1869
BM: 973 tons
Propulsion: Screw
Machinery notes: 100
Notes:

20 Dec 1848 Steam gun vessel. Deptford building.

3 Jan 1851 Arrived at Sierra Leone

10 Feb 1851 Sighted at Ascension Island.

Weekly Dispatch, 2 Mar 1851 The Wasp, screw steam-sloop, Commander Crozier, arrived at Sierra Leone on 3rd January. On the 10th ult., she carried away, close to the cross pieces, the piston-rod, which knocked out the bottom of the foremost cylinder. No accident occurred. Her distilling galley is reported to answer well, and to give 230 gallons of water a day. This water is excellent for all cooking and washing purposes, and although rather flat when drunk cold, is far preferable to the water which can be obtained on the coast, two or three places alone being excepted. The Wasp left Sierra Leone on 21st ult., for the Congo.

6 - 10 May one of her boats observed by the Hecla watching a prospective slave vessel, the Sardinian brig Vincitore, wait in vain in Granite Pillar Bay for her supplies, prior to embarking her cargo of slaves. Since the Hecla had disrupted the supply of stores and provisions the brig was unable to embark her stores and the attempt had to be put off for another time.

30 Aug 1851 Coast of Africa

26 Feb 1855 at Balaklava.

11 Dec 1858 at Rio.

9 Jun 1860 sailed from Sheerness for the Downs, encountered a gale, and headed for Portsmouth, in the event, via Portland. Then sailed for Plymouth and from thence to the Cape, involving a man overboard, and a stop at Madeira, en route.

25 Aug 1860 on the rocks on a part of the coast midway between Simon's Bay and Table Bay, but was got off.

Aug-Sep 1860 at the Cape of Good Hope.

2 Oct 1860 sailed for Mauritius, and on the 21st arrived at Port Louis and docked in the Trou Fanfaron.

1 Dec 1860 sailed for the Seychelles, and from thence to the Mozambique Channel on an anti-slavery patrol, where the Wasp went aground, and a boat was sent off to Zanzibar to seek assistance, but subsequently refloated herself!

12 Feb 1861 detained in the Mozambique Channel the Portuguese slave felucca Theresa, which was sent for adjudication and sentenced to be restored to her master.

Circa 7 Mar 1861 sailed for the Comoro Islands, arriving on the 20th.

Circa 7 May 1861 sailed for Port Louis to be docked, and after a stay of some weeks departed for the Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena and Portsmouth, via Brighton, where the Wasp was paid-off and the ship's company turned over to the Chanticleer.

16 Nov 1863 Portsmouth. Commissioned.

1864 Cape of Good Hope and East Indies station. Medical report : fever, and diarrhea onboard : number of Cases of Disease and Injury.

1 Dec 1866 at Zanzibar, Captain Norman A. Bedingfield, writes regarding possible trouble with the arrival of the Northern Arabs in January, with the Monsoon and the early rains, following the recent military action taken by the British in the Persian Gulf, and also advises that the crews of the Bombay dhows are often slaves who will end up being taken to the Persian Gulf on their return passage up north i.e. a subtle means of getting them from Point A to Point B, whilst earning their keep and without, until now, apparently raising the concerns of the British anti-slavery cruisers, although this statement is contested by the British authorities in Bombay.

1 Dec 1866 Captain Bedingfield also notes that the agreement by the Sultan here to ban the importation of slaves during the 5 months from January to May is a farce, since during this period the monsoons make it next to impossible to bring the slaves from the south here, whilst for the remaining 7 months there is no natural impediment. It is also noted that whilst the Northern Arabs are here the Sultan and many of his troops invariably leave the region and it is only the fear of what the British will do to their dhows that keeps any form of check on these "pirates" who walk around the streets fully armed as if they own the place, and are effectively a law unto themselves.

5 Jan 1867 the ship's boats under the command of Lieut. Pattisson detained a Mohilla dhow, Name Unknown, in Lat. 8° 30', with 37 slaves on board, contrary to the Mohilla Treaty. Being unfit to send to the nearest prize court the vessel of 48 tons was burnt and the case sent for adjudication to the Vice-Admiralty Court at Aden.

19 Jan 1867 off the Kissewa Islands.