HMS Dee was the first paddle steamer ordered for the Royal Navy, designed to carry a significant armament.

[3] She was designed by Sir Robert Seppings, Surveyor of the Navy and modified by Oliver Lang.

[6] Dee was the third ship to carry this name since it was introduced for a 20-gun sixth rate, launched by Bailey of Ipswich on 5 May 1814 and sold on 33 July 1819 to Pitman.

Steam was produced and delivered to the engines from tubular boilers at 3.5 pounds per square inch (0.24 atm; 24 kPa) above atmospheric pressure.

[12][13] When the paddle wheels turned 18 revolutions per minute, she had a maximum speed of 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph).

[14] In 1856,[15] Dee and the yacht Black Eagle were used in a trial of J Wethered's apparatus for superheated steam.

[17] Her initial armament consisted of two 18-pounder 22 hundredweight (cwt) muzzle loading smooth bore (MLSB) guns on pivot mounts.

[18] HMS Dee initial commission was on 9 June 1832 under the command of Commander Robert Oliver, RN for service with the squadron blockading the Dutch coast[19] from 9 June 1832 – 27 May 1834, when the steamers Dee and Rhadamanthus were part of a Royal Navy force including three line-of-battle ships and ten other sailing ships that blockaded the Dutch ports in 1832.

In March 1846 the Dee was engaged bringing food supplies to Sligo as relief following the first failed harvest of the Great Irish Famine.

On 18 May 1848 she was under the command of George Filmer, Master for service at the Cape of Good Hope Station.

At the time of the 1861 Census, she was in Plymouth Sound, under Pullen's command, en-route between the Clyde and Chatham, carrying Marines and family members, one as young as 1 month.