HMS Megaera was originally constructed as an iron screw frigate for the Royal Navy, and was one of the last and largest ships built by William Fairbairn's Millwall shipyard.

Following a change in military strategy the Megaera evacuated a small detachment of 21 Royal Artillery Soldiers from the Island of St Vincent on 10 May 1853 landing them at Barbados 2 days later.

The ship's officers complained that the vessel was overloaded with baggage and riding too low in the water; there was an article in The Times, questions were asked in the House of Commons and eventually an inspection resulted in 127 tons of cargo being removed.

After she snapped a second anchor cable, Megaera's divers were finally able to make an inspection and the leak was found: one of her iron plates was worn away, and had a hole whose edges were so thin they could be bent by hand.

On 16 July, Captain Visier of the Dutch vessel Aurora spotted the flagpole which Megaera's crew had erected and Lieutenant Lewis Jones sailed with her to Surabaya, Java, which they reached on 2 August.

He despatched telegrams to the British Consul in Batavia and to the Royal Navy Commodore in Hong Kong, who ordered HMS Rinaldo to sail to the rescue.

On 7 August, a second Dutch ship took five men from Saint Paul Island, and on the same day the captain of the British clipper Mountain Laurel asked to be paid to rescue the crew of Megaera, claiming that he would have to jettison his cargo to accommodate so many people.

Captain Thrupp and his crew subsequently faced a court martial in November 1871 at Plymouth and a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the loss of the ship.