She was bought in 1912 by Georgy Brusilov for use in his ill-fated 1912 Arctic expedition to explore the Northern Sea Route, and was named Svyataya Anna (Russian: Святая Анна), after Saint Anne.

Another twelve were ordered on 14 June 1859 to be constructed by contract in private yards, receiving their names on 24 September the same year; these were then fitted out at naval dockyards.

She was fitted with a Laird Brothers two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine driving a single screw and developing 325 indicated horsepower (242 kW).

On the night before the canal was due to open, Nares navigated his vessel, in total darkness and without lights, through the mass of waiting ships until it was in front of L'Aigle.

Captain Nares received both an official reprimand and an unofficial vote of thanks from the Admiralty for his actions in promoting British interests and for demonstrating superb seamanship.

[6] Leybourne-Popham appointed Joseph Wiggins as captain of Blencathra for an 1893 voyage to the Kara Sea and into the Yenisey River, thus taking the ship to the furthest reaches of Siberia.

With the river vessels embarked in Orestes, and Blencathra in company, the group left Vardø on 22 August 1893, reaching the mouth of the Yenisey on 3 September.

[8] Bruce joined Blencathra at Tromsø, Norway in May 1898, and the cruise explored the Barents Sea, the dual islands of Novaya Zemlya and Kolguyev, before a retreat to Vardø to re-provision for the voyage to Spitsbergen.