In 1852 Captain Granville Gower Loch commissioned Winchester to relieve Hastings as flagship in China and the East Indies.

Shortly after arriving at Rangoon Rear-Admiral Charles Austen died; Commodore George Lambert was off the coast, and the command on the Irrawaddy River devolved on Loch.

The subsequent action resolved itself into keeping the river clear and driving the Burmese out of such positions as they occupied on its banks.

[1][2] Rear Admiral Fleetwood Pellew raised his flag aboard Winchester in April 1853, and by September 1854 he was off Hong Kong to take command of the East Indies and China Station.

Here he seems to have decided that he would not allow shore leave until the dangerous season for fevers and infections had passed, but neglected to make his reasoning known to his men.

Winchester subsequently was involved in the Second Opium War, when her boats and some of her ship's company were used in the attack on Canton.

[3][4] In August 1855, during the Crimean War, Winchester and Barracouta entered and first charted the waters of Peter the Great Gulf, while searching for the Russian squadron commanded by Vasily Zavoyko.