HMS Rattlesnake (1861)

HMS Rattlesnake was a 21-gun Jason-class corvette launched in 1861 at Chatham Dockyard and broken up in 1882. She was off Saint Helena when the 1871 census was taken. During her third commission from 1871–1873 she was the flagship of Commodore John Edmund Commerell, Commander-in-Chief Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa Station, who was wounded at the start of the Third Anglo-Ashanti War. Rattlesnake was propelled by a Ravenhill & Salkeld engine delivering 1,628 indicated horsepower (1,214 kW). When operating under sailpower, her funnel could be retracted to clear the rigging and her propeller lifted into a special housing aft to streamline her hullform.