HMS Merlin was the name ship of her class of three 2-gun paddle packet boats built for the Royal Navy during the 1830s.

[1] The Medusa class was fitted with a pair of steam engines, rated at 312 nominal horsepower, that drove their paddlewheels.

[2] Merlin, the twelfth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy,[3] was ordered on 10 March 1838, laid down the following month at Pembroke Dockyard, Wales, and launched on 18 September 1838.

The ship was initially based at Liverpool for packet service in the Irish Sea.

The ship was converted into a gunboat in 1856 and was transferred to the West Coast of Africa Station in May of that year.