1845
On 15 July the following year, the elderly Rear-Admiral Hyde Parker led the pre-Symonds Trafalgar, St Vincent, Rodney and Canopus, along with Symonds' Queen, Albion, Vanguard and Superb, out of Portsmouth Harbour. The squadron arrived at Cork on 7 September, left on the 18th, and arrived in Plymouth on the 20th. (In this and all the other 1845 squadrons Queen performed well, having performed badly in the 1844 squadron.) In Plymouth, the same squadron was transferred to Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Pym and sailed on 21 October, returning to the same port on 3 December. The third and final 1845 cruise lasted 43 days and consisted solely of the two deckers from the previous two (Albion, Vanguard, Superb, Rodney and Canopus), accompanied by a brig from the 1844 squadron, Daring. It sailed from Plymouth on 21 October, led, not by an admiral (those then available were all very old and infirm, and the Admiralty placed little confidence in them), but by successive captains in the squadron acting as commodore (Moresby in Canopus, and then Willes in Vanguard). A final set of cruises occurred in 1846, with a "squadron of evolution" made up of steam-ships and sailing ships of the line.
Read more about this topic: Experimental Squadron (Royal Navy)