Active, 1869
Type: Corvette: Cruiser 2nd Class ; (Iron, cased with wood) ; Armament 10
Launched : 13 Mar 1869 ; Disposal date or year : 1906
BM: 2322 OM tons ; Displacement: 3078 tons
Propulsion: Screw
Machinery notes: 2,400 ihp 600 ; Speed ; 15 knots ;
Complement: 206
Notes:

1870 Portsmouth

1873 Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa

1873 Men sent ashore as a part of the Naval Brigade for the Ashanti War.

21 Nov 1873 at Cape Coast Castle during the Ashanti War.

17 Jan 1874 at Cape Coast Castle during the Ashanti War.

Latter half of 1874, operations up the River Congo.

1 Jul 1876, blockading Whydah, the port of Dahomey.

27 Jul 1876, arrived off the mouth of the Niger : landing party, with guns and rockets, transferred to the gunboats Cygnet and Ariel, who proceeded up the river to Akado, with the local steamer Sultan of Sokato, to take punitive action against the local natives for attacking an English steamer.

12 April 1877 arrived at Portsmouth, from the Cape of Good Hope, and was paid-off.

13 Apr 1877 commissioned at Portsmouth

1877-8 Men sent ashore as a part of the Naval Brigade for the Kaffir Wars.

1879 Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa (Ordered home to Spithead).

1879 Men sent ashore as a part of the Naval Brigade for the Zulu Wars.

1879 Paid off into refit.

21 Sep 1885 Commissioned at Portsmouth for the Training Squadron.

Apr 1886 Training Squadron.

2 May 1886 A telegram from the Lloyds signal station at the Lizard timed 9.5 pm, reports HMS Rover passed east today towing the Calypso, with screw damaged, for Plymouth ; parted company with the Active and Volage yesterday.

1890 Commodore Commanding Training Squadron.

17 Apr 1891 has been docked at Portsmouth to have defects in her shaft repaired.

26 Jun 1897 present at the Naval Review at Spithead in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee.

1898 Paid Off.

25 Feb 1900 The Active, formerly flagship of the Training Squadron, was to have been refitted for further service, but the Admiralty have now decided not to go on with the work, and the ship will be removed to "Rotten Row" in Portsmouth Harbour until sold out of the Service. Launched at Blackwall in 1869, the Active has seen a great deal of service in her time, although there has been nothing particularly striking about her career. She was an unprotected cruiser, having a displacement of just over 3,000 tons. For some time she was flagship of the Cape Squadron before that station was joined with the West Coast of Africa Station, and the late Admiral Hewitt, while Commodore at the Cape, flew his broad pennant on the Active. After being paid off last, she was stripped, and her next voyage will be to the shipbreakers.