HMS Samarang was a 28-gun, teak, Atholl-class sixth rate of the Royal Navy.

However, a side effect of the cathodic protection was to increase marine growth.

Since excess marine growth affected the performance of the ship, the Royal Navy decided that it was better to allow the copper to corrode and have the benefit of reduced marine growth, so cathodic protection was not used further.

Samarang served in various stations around the world until seeing action in the First Opium War, and was then employed, under Edward Belcher, in surveying the coasts of the East Indies and southern China from 1843 to 1846.

[1] On 17 July 1843, she struck a rock in the Sarawak river at Kuching and capsized, but her crew survived;[2][3][4] she had been refloated by 13 August and was returned to service.