HMS Tartarus was a paddle steamer gunvessel, the name ship of her class, built for the Royal Navy during the 1830s.

Tartarus had a length at the gun deck of 145 feet (44.2 m) and 125 feet 6 inches (38.3 m) at the keel. She had a beam of 28 feet 4 inches (8.6 m), a draught of 10 feet 6 inches (3.2 m) and a depth of hold of 14 feet 9 inches (4.5 m). The ship's tonnage was 523 24⁄94 tons burthen and she displaced 560 long tons (570 t).^[1] The Tartarus class was initially armed with a pair of 9-pounder cannon, but these were later exchanged for a single 32-pounder smoothbore cannon on a pivot mount and a pair of 32-pounder carronades. The ships had a crew of 80 officers and ratings.^[2]

Tartarus, the third ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy,^[3] was ordered on 2 July 1833, laid down in September 1833 at Pembroke Dockyard, Wales, and launched on 23 June 1834.^[2] She was completed on 3 October 1834 at Woolwich Dockyard and commissioned on 27 August of the same year.^[1]

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• Phillips, Lawrie; Lieutenant Commander (2014). Pembroke Dockyard and the Old Navy: A Bicentennial History. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-5214-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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