HMS Arethusa (1849)

Preserved Arethusa figurehead in Upnor on the River Medway
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Arethusa
Ordered:	19 February 1844
Builder:	Pembroke Dockyard
Laid down:	30 March 1846
Launched:	20 June 1849
Completed:	20 March 1850
Reclassified:	Training ship in 1874
Fate:	Sold on 2 August 1933 Broken up in 1934
General characteristics as sailing frigate
Class and type:	Constance-class frigate
Tons burthen:	2,125  75⁄94 bm
Length:	180 ft (55 m) (gundeck) 146 ft 10.25 in (44.76 m) (keel)
Beam:	52 ft 8 in (16.05 m)
Depth of hold:	16 ft 3 in (4.95 m)
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Crew:	500
Armament:	Upper deck: 28 × 32-pounders (10 × 32-pounders later replaced by 10 × 8in/68-pounder shell guns) Quarterdeck: 14 × 32-pounders Forecastle: 8 × 32-pounders
General characteristics as screw frigate
Displacement:	3,708 tons
Tons burthen:	3,142  33⁄94 bm
Length:	252 ft 4 in (76.91 m) (gundeck) 217 ft 1 in (66.17 m) (keel)
Beam:	52 ft 8 in (16.05 m)
Draught:	20 ft 8 in (6.30 m) (forward) 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m) (aft)
Depth of hold:	17 ft 1 in (5.21 m)
Installed power:	3,165 ihp (2,360 kW)
Propulsion:	Trunked engine, with surface condensers Cylinders 80in diam. 42in stroke
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Speed:	11.704 knots (21.68 km/h; 13.47 mph)
Crew:	525
Armament:	Middle deck: 30 × 8in shell Upper deck: 20 × 32-pounders + 1 × 68-pounder on pivot

HMS Arethusa was a 50-gun fourth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy launched in 1849. She was fitted with screw propulsion in 1861 and became a training ship in 1874 and finally scrapped in 1933 at Woolwich. Arethusa was an all-wooden construction, and the last major ship of the Royal Navy to enter an engagement under sail power only (1854, during the Crimean War).

The ship's figurehead, originally carved by the Hellyer family, has been preserved and remains on exhibit at Upnor.

Arethusa saw service during the Crimean War, with battles at Odessa and Sevastopol. At the time of the battle in 1854, was Capt. William Robert Mends.

Once decommissioned, in 1874, the ship was passed from the Royal Navy to a charity called Shaftesbury Homes who moored her at Greenhithe. Shaftesbury Homes provided refuge and taught maritime skills to children who had been sleeping rough on the streets of London. It trained those young boys for a career in the Royal Navy or Merchant Navy. In 1933 the wooden frigate was no longer viable, and was replaced by the steel hulled Peking (ship) which was moored at Upnor on the Medway, and renamed Arethusa. The frigate was broken up and the figurehead was taken to the onshore base at Upnor. The second Arethusa was sold on in 1974 and the onshore base was reconfigured as the Arethusa Venture Centre. It provides residential school trips and educational visits for young people throughout the UK. It also offers outdoor challenges and adventures, to aid confidence and self-esteem in young people.