HMS Topaze (1858)

HMS Topaze was a 51-gun wooden screw frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 12 May 1858, at Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth.

Her crew assisted in the building of the Race Rocks Lighthouse in British Columbia, Canada, and laid a bronze tablet in 1868 at the Juan Fernández Islands commemorating the stay of marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk.Kraske (2005), p.100 On the same voyage, the band from HMS Topaze played in Victoria, British Columbia for the dedication of Congregation Emanu-El, now the oldest surviving synagogue building in Canada.The Synagogue of Congregation Emanu-El

In 1868 HMS Topaze voyaged to from Callao to Easter Island first sighting the island on 31 October before anchoring off Hanga Roa. The visit saw the crew remove the two moai Hoa Hakananai'a and Moai Hava and ship them to Britain.Fragment > HMS Topaze and Easter Island, Chile (1868) , Luminous Lint. Accessed 20 July 2014 Hoa Hakananai'a was found in November 1868 by officers and crew from the Topaze. When first seen, it was buried up to about half its height or even more. It was dug out, dragged down on a sledge, and rafted out to the ship. HMS Topaze departed from the island at 5pm 7 November heading for Valparaíso.

Commodore Richard Ashmore Powell, captain of the Topaze, wrote to the British Admiralty offering the statues as a gift. Topaze arrived in Plymouth, England, on 16 August 1869. The Admiralty offered the moai to Queen Victoria, who proposed that they should be given to the British Museum.

The ship is notable for an incident when Agnes Weston came on board to plead the cause of Temperance; as she recalled in her memoir:My Life Among the Bluejackets, Agnes Weston.

Topaze was sold on 14 February 1884 and broken up at Charlton.

HMS Topaze (1858)

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