HMS Fairy was built in Chatham in 1826 a “Cherokee” Class Brig of which 115 were built. She was a sloop-rigged gun brig and sister ship the famous HMS Beagle, which Charles Darwin sailed around the world. She was built at a cost of £7,803.

After the peace settlement of 1815 the Royal Navy did not need powerful men –of-war such as national hero Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory, with her 104 guns and crew of 850 men. However, the wartime British fleet had included large numbers of smaller ships. They were used for coastal defence, anti-piracy duties, intelligence gathering and communications work. One such class of ship was known as the 10-gun brig. These ships were 90 feet long, 24 foot in beam, 12 foot in draft and were armed with eight short-range 18-pounder carronades and two long-range 6-pounder guns, and with a compliment of 65 officers, men and boys. The 10-gun brig was in effect, a cross between a merchantman and a small warship.

After the Harbour was built at Lowestoft seafront by the Lowestoft and Norwich Navigation Company, the Hydrographic Office commissioned a new marine survey of Lowestoft roads with the Corton, Holm and Newcombe Sands. Commander William Hewett and HMS Fairy carried this out in 1836.

Commander William Hewett wasn’t the first Captain of HMS Fairy though. After being built George William Courtnay, 4/27, fitted her out for the West Indies station before being removed to HMS Arachne on 12th September. David Edwards, 9/27, took over command of her tour of duty in Jamaica. By 1828 Francis Blair, 4/28, had assumed charge in Jamaica.

On the 10th March 18/30 Lieutenant William Molyneux, flag lieutenant to Vice Admiral Hon. C.E. Fleming was ordered to act as commander of Fairy and he brought her home on 16th June 1830 to Chatham.

Finally in 1832 Commander William Hewett, 12/31 took command out of Sheerness, Kent as a survey vessel. It was in his command that HMS Fairy visited Oulton Broad.

Only a few years later on the unlucky 13th November 1840, HMS Fairy was lost in a terrible storm off the east coast. Ordered by the Admiralty to Great Yarmouth to witness the operation of a new dredging device, invented by Captain Manby, the Fairy left Harwich on the 12th November, and was last seen heading north.

By nightfall, a severe easterly gale was raging, during which the Fairy disappeared. A short piece in the Times newspaper of 20.11.1840 reported that a Yarmouth fishing smack off Kessingland had seen a three masted man o’ war founder, and heard the cries of her crew, but were unable to assist due to heavy seas. It is thought that being so close to Lowestoft the Fairy was heading to the safety of Lake Lothing but fate decided on that terrible night not to be kind.

The Admiralty despatched the paddle steamer SALAMANDER to Norway, to search the coast in case she was there, but returned without news. Various items of floating wreckage were then reported on 14.11 off the Brown Banks, some of which bore broad arrow markings, and were eventually identified as coming from the Fairy. The wreck has never been located.

Captain Hewett and all hands, including Hewett’s eldest son William Burdon Hewett (serving as a midshipman) , his brother-in-law Richard Stevens, 65 officers, men and boys on board where lost. Commander William Hewett left behind his wife Ann Stevens whose descendents still live on today in America. Mrs Hewett received a letter of sympathy from Queen Victoria. It is believed that Hewett was elevated to the rank of Admiral posthumously though this is still something of a mystery.

Admiral Beauforts’s, pocket diaries from 1840 (in archives with the Manuscripts department at the Huntington Library in San. Marino, California , USA) describe the event as “The most harrowing disaster” Beaufort’s pocket diary reflect his agony of uncertainty over several weeks before the tragic truth was known, and his shattering grief thereafter. William Hewett was also a gifted nautical scientist ad the outstanding survey of the North Sea, conducted over a period of 8 years. It was Hewett’s ingenious observations, which confirmed the existence of a previously suspected amphidromic point (a position of no vertical tide movement) in the North Sea.

There is a memorial plaque at St. Nicholas Church, Harwich, dedicated to Captain Hewett and the crew of HMS Fairy from the crew of the steamer, HMS Sheerwater.

It was interesting to note that fairy (who ended her service as a survey vessel) was of the same “Cherokee” Class as the famous HMS Beagle that Charles Darwin sailed around the world. It is a nice coincidence that the modern coastal vessel HMS Beagle (H319) was built by Brooke Marine at Lowestoft. This was the 9th HMS Beagle to be built, weighing 1050 tonnes, and launched on September 7th 1967.

Richard Branson's boat the Virgin Atlantic Challenger II was also built at Lowestoft's Brooke Yachts (Brooke Marine Ltd.) yard and won the Blue Riband award for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic from New York to Bishops Rock (St. Mary's) in 1986.

During the 19th century there were three innovations which had a significant impact on naval warfare: the shift from sail to steam, the use of iron instead of wood with which to build ships, and the introduction of breech-loading guns. Many people regretted the passing of the old ways and you will see a certain nostalgia for the days of sail and Britain's naval glory reflected in the painting and prints. Britain attempted to maintain her maritime prestige during the 19th century by ensuring that the Royal Navy was at least the size of any two other European navies; this she managed to do, but at an enormous cost. Much of the navy's activity during the 19th century was directed towards extending and policing the British Empire and although Britain's pride was her large fleet battleships, the majority of the navy's work was carried out by small gunboats and sloops capable of sailing close to the shore and supporting land-based manoeuvres.

HMS Fairy was rebuilt as a warship and again saw major action in the Great War when on 31^st May 1918 she successfully rammed and sank the German Submarine UC75.

Below is a rare copy of the map commissioned by the Hydrographic office in 1836. The topographical detail in the chart is particularly interesting because it shows the extent of the built up area of Lowestoft, mainly in a triangle formed by the High Street, St. Peters Street, and St. Margaret’s road. There is now a lock at Oulton Broad, but no railway yet.

The map also clearly illustrates the beacons for the Lake Lothing, which illuminated the water for visiting ships. It is also the first time that the free jetty is recorded on any map. We also see the Oulton Mill, which will later become the Harris Mill, today the Mill House Bed and Breakfast remains on the spot.