| Name | Prometheus | Explanation |
| Type | Sloop |
| |
| Launched | 21 September 1839 |
| Hull | Wooden |
| Propulsion | Paddle |
| Builders measure | 800 tons |
| Displacement | 878 tons |
| Guns | 5 |
| Fate | 1863 |
| Class | |
| Ships book | |
| Note | |
| Snippets concerning this vessels career |
| Date | Event |
| 21 November 1839 | Commanded by Lieutenant commander Thomas Spark, Mediterranean |
| 23 February 1843 | Commanded by Lieutenant commander Frederick Lowe, particular service |
| 15 May 1844 | Commanded by Commander John Hay, west coast of Africa |
| 21 May 1850 | Commanded by Commander Henry Richard Foote, west coast of Africa |
12 September 1854
- 16 January 1856 | Commanded by Commander Jasper Henry Selwyn, west coast of Africa |
| 19 January 1856 | Commanded by Commander Charles Webley Hope, west coast of Africa |
19 October 1859
- 12 November 1860 | Commanded (from commissioning at Woolwich) by Commander Sidmouth Stowell Skipwich, west coast of Africa (until Skipwich invalided) |
| 12 November 1860 | Commanded by Norman Bernard Bedingfield, west coast of Africa |
| Extracts from the Times newspaper |
| Date | Extract |
| Ma 14 September 1840 | It appears that neither the Salamander nor Comet steam-vessels are to be paid off; they are equipping at Woolwich, with great despatch; they will be both at Spithead about the last week in September. The Medea will leave Woolwich on the 24th. The Vesuvius is fitting at Chatham for the Mediterranean. These four steam ships will increase Sir R. Stopford's force to 10 powerful steam-vessels of war, he having already the Gorgon, Cyclops, Phoenix, Rhadamanthus, Hydra, and Stromboli; and to which there are several steamers already fitted for guns, &c., employed in the conveyance of the mails, such as the Acheron, Volcano, Prometheus, Megaera, Alecto, &c. |
| Th 1 January 1863 | The Prometheus, 5, 200-horse power, which was undocked at Chatham Dockyard a few days since to allow of the iron paddlewheel steamer Recruit, 6, 160-horse power, being placed in the same dock to undergo some very extensive repairs, is ordered to be thoroughly surveyed by several of the master-shipwrights connected with the various dockyards, with the view to ascertain whether the defects in that vessel are of such a nature as to allow of her repair. During the time the Prometheus was in dock she underwent a survey at the hands of the dockyard officials, the result of which was the discovery that most of her timbers were exceedingly rotten and her planking very defective. Her engines and machinery have been taken out and placed in the dockyard, and should the special report to the Admiralty be unfavourable she will either he broken up or sold out of the service. The Prometheus is not an old vessel, and nearly the whole time since she was built she has been employed on the coast of Africa.
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The Mid-Victorian Royal Navy
