HMS Penguin was a six-gun Alert-class packet brig built for the Royal Navy during the 1830s.

[1] The Alert class was initially armed with a pair of 6-pounder cannon and four 12-pounder carronades.

[2] The ships had a crew of 44 officers and ratings.

[3] Penguin, the fourth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy,[4] was ordered on 14 April 1836, laid down in November 1836 at Pembroke Dockyard, Wales, and launched on 10 April 1838.

[3] She was completed on 21 September 1838 at Plymouth Dockyard and commissioned on 24 July of that year.