She was launched in 1829 and surveyed the north-eastern coast of Australia under Francis Price Blackwood during the mid-1830s.

She took part in the First Opium War, destroying, with HMS Volage, 29 Chinese junks.

Hyacinth was the second of four Favorite-class ship sloops, which were a ship-rigged and lengthened version of the 1796 Cruizer-class brig-sloop.

All four ships of the class were ordered on 10 June 1823 and Hyacinth was laid down at Plymouth Dockyard in March 1826.

[1] On 2 October 1871, Hyacinth drove ashore and sank in the Clarence Creek.