Trincomalee is one of two surviving British frigates of her era—her near-sister HMS Unicorn (of the modified Leda class) is now a museum ship in Dundee.

After being ordered on 30 October 1812, Trincomalee was built in Bombay, India, by the Wadia family[1] of shipwrights in teak, due to oak shortages in Britain as a result of shipbuilding drives for the Napoleonic Wars.

[3] During the maiden voyage the ship arrived at Saint Helena on 24 January 1819, where she stayed for 6 days, leaving with an additional passenger, a surgeon who had attended Napoleon at Longwood House on the island, Mr John Stokoe.

[4] After being fitted out at a further cost of £2,400, Trincomalee was placed in reserve until 1845, when she was re-armed with fewer guns giving greater firepower, had her stern reshaped and was reclassified as a sixth-rate spar-decked corvette.

In 1852 she sailed to join the Pacific Squadron on the west coast of America,[6] and upon returning to England in 1857, she was put back 'in ordinary' after arriving at Chatham on 4 September.