HMS Fly (1831)

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Career (UK) Royal Navy Ensign
Name: HMS Fly
Builder: Pembroke Dockyard
Launched: 25 August 1831
Out of service: Converted to a coal hulk in 1855
Renamed: C2, then C70 whilst a hulk
Fate: Broken up 1903
General characteristics
Class and type: sloop
Tons burthen: 485 tons
Length: 114 ft 6 in (34.90 m)
Beam: 32 ft (9.8 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Armament: 18 guns of various weights of shot

HMS Fly was an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy.

File:Whitsunday islands.jpg
During the 1840s, the Fly charted past Whitsunday Island, pictured here.

Fly was launched on from Pembroke Dockyard on 25 August 1831. During the early to mid 1840s, she charted numerous routes (trade/shipping-related and otherwise) through and from many locations, primarily around and off Australia's North-east coast and nearby islands. Such islands included Whitsunday Island and the Capricorn Islands.

After being discovered during the survey of the Gulf of Papua, New Guinea, the Fly River was named after the Fly. For the most of its seaworthy existence, the Fly was captained by Francis Price Blackwood. She returned to the UK and was laid up as a coal hulk in 1855. During this part of her career, she was designated C2, and then C70. She was finally broken up in 1903.

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