Turquoise, 1877
Type: Cruiser, 3rd Class ; late Composite Corvette ; Armament 12
Displacement: 2162 tons
Propulsion: Screw
Machinery notes: 1990 hpi
Notes:

13 Sep 1877 Commissioned at Sheerness.

1879 Pacific.

Apr 1886 East Indies.

28 May 1887 Lt Fegen was sent away in the steam pinnace to north of Pemba to search Arab dhows for slaves. The following morning a dhow was sighted and the dinghy lowered and manned with a view to inspecting the dhow, but after being hailed 3 times the dhow responded with rifle fire. On seeing this the pinnace came up to give the dinghy some protection, but the dhow, with a following wind, was able to ram the pinnace and board and would have killed Lt Fegen had not one of the seamen charged the Arabs with his cutlass, but the fight continued until a gust wind fortunately caught the dhow's sails when, not wishing to be abandoned in the pinnace the attacking slavers returned to the dhow leaving their dead and wounded. It would appear that the dhow's helmsman was then shot by someone in the pinnace, for the dhow broached to and went ashore on nearby Njao Island, where the crew abandoned the vessel, leaving 9 men dead, and disappeared ashore, leaving their cargo of slaves to drown or make their own way ashore : 57 were rescued by the pinnace, but not having enough victuals to feed everyone the slaves were landed ashore to fend for themselves whilst the pinnace departed for Funzi Island where some supplies were stored. The crew were all alive following the attack, although 5, including Lt Fegen, were wounded. The dinghy was sent to Zanzibar for help, which arrived 11 days later in the form of the sloop Reindeer, with a surgeon, but whilst the leg of one of the men who had been shot had been saved, gangrene had set in on the leg of Ben Stone, and despite amputation the man died and was buried on the Funzi Island. See : Royal Navy Versus the Slave Traders: Enforcing Abolition at Sea 1808-1898.

3 Nov 1887 Re-commissioned at Bombay.

1890 East Indies.