HMS Rapid was an 11-gun Rosario-class wooden-hulled screw-driven sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 29 November 1860 at Deptford Dockyard and broken up in 1881.

[1] Rapid was fitted with a Greenock Foundry Company two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine driving a single screw.

Commander Jago took the ship to the Cape of Good Hope Station where she remained until 1866, paying off at Woolwich on 24 January 1867.

[3] In September 1869, she assisted in the refloating of the British steamship Becton, which had run aground at Missolonghi, Greece.

[6] At the request of the British consul, Rapid evacuated 180 Christian women and children from Tre Scogli and Santi Quaranta villages in Albania when an attack by Turkish troops was expected.

Fitzgerald was first censured for exceeding his authority in doing this by Admiral Hornby, but the Admiralty confirmed he had acted under instructions.

Fitzgerald found this trying, as his good companions with whom he had enjoyed hunting wherever the ship visited, were departing.