Dauntless`s 1826 southern Expedition.
The Dauntless in a sketch by Timothy Thatcher about 1826 soon after he had been appointed to command the ship on her historic voyage.
One of the 56 gun Frigates of the 1818 act the Dauntless was the third ship in her class. She was laid down in the Fredricksburg (At that time the town was still known as Nova Stockholm) naval yard on March fifth 1819. She was launched in May of 1821 and commissioned on the 11th of October of the same year. For the first four months of her service the ship sailed as a training ship for officers and crew to acquaint them with the basics of gunnery, navigation, as well as the finer points of sailing. During this time she was commanded by Captain first class Edward Cowper, the first of many Welshmen to command her.
After her crew was trained to a common standard the vessel was then dispatched alongside the 56 gun Fearless, the flagship of Commodore Icenhour, she served in the second fleet during the second war with China. She took no part in any of the atrocities committed by the navy at the time and was quite busy acting to seek and destroy the powerful French Pirate ship the Soleil, which she did in a furious action which took place off of the southern Japanese island of Kuyshu on June 19th 1824. She then escorted the damaged Volk and Avrora back to Posadka after they suffered a collision in the Yangtze river during the latter stages of the offensive along its shores.
Following the peace 1825 with China, and the middle Kingdoms withdrawl into nearly thirty years of isolationism, the Dauntless returned to Alyskan waters and the ship was paid off and officers and crew dismissed as it was intended to place the ship in Ordinary (Storage) along with the Fearless and Courageous as large Frigates were judged to be to expensive in the era of peace which was expected by the newly elected Trent government.
However before she could rot forgotten along the dock President Trent found a use for the ship which would take her very far from home. Trent wished to establish Alyska as a colonial power in the Pacific and wished to send the Dauntless out to chart any and all landmasses in the ocean. She was to also fully chart the western coast of the Americas and fully map New Zealand (Atoria).
To command the ship during her expedition Trent chose the former RN lieutenant Timothy Thatcher (The future Timothy I) as captain. Thatcher had only recently enlisted in the navy after a number of years on half pay in London following the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1816.
The Dauntless, with a totally new crew, set sail for the south Pacific on August 9th 1826. She spent much of the remainder of the year cruising the coast of North and South America, making the first detailed charts of the coast in English. She then spent some months off of Antarctica charting its peninsula in detail. She then headed for New Zealand and spent almost nine months off its coast, occasionally attacked by the fierce natives Thatcher nonetheless made numerous landings along the coast and observed such creatures as the Stewart Eagle
OTL Haast eagle. As well as the massive Richards Ostrich OTL Moa Moa birds. Following her extensive stay along New Zealand the Dauntless spent nearly a month in british claimed Australia making large lists of the creatures found there. Including a sketch by Thatcher of the now presumed extinct Tasmanian Tiger. Many specimens were also collected. So many in fact that they would not all fit aboard the Dauntless and Thatcher was forced to hire a schooner to bring the collection to Posadka.
Dauntless would depart Australia in January 1827 and head for the east Indies were she would spend several months amongst the many islands and reefs once more filling the ship nearly to the brim with specimens of new and exotic creatures.
The ships trip was cut short however when a passing British Indiamen hailed Dauntless and informed them that war had broken out between Alyska and the crumbling Spanish empire.
Thatcher hastily set a course for Posadka, choosing to head clear back to the Americas to avoid any Spanish vessels along the way.