HMS Rodney was a two-deck 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.

[2] She was based on a design by Robert Seppings and used his diagonal bracing (short timber) construction.

The majority of her commissions saw active service in the Mediterranean Sea, but she also served in the Black Sea during the Crimean War (1853–1856), and after being converted to a steam and screw propelled vessel, served in China as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Henry Keppel, commanded by captain Algernon Heneage from 21 January 1867.

Rodney was the ship where William Hall, later to become the first Black man and one of the first Canadians to win the Victoria Cross, began his naval career in 1852.

[4] Rodney was fitted with screw propulsion in 1860, completed on 11 January, and was the last unarmoured wooden battleship in full commission.