Editing HMS Beagle (section)

==Design and construction==
The {{sclass|Cherokee|brig-sloop|4}} of 10-gun [[sloop-of-war#Rigging|brig-sloops]] was designed by Sir Henry Peake in 1807, and eventually over 100 were constructed. The working drawings for HMS ''Beagle'' and HMS ''Barracouta'' were issued to the [[Woolwich Dockyard]] on 16 February 1817, and amended in coloured ink on 16 July 1817 with modifications to increase the height of the bulwarks (the sides of the ship extended above the upper deck) by an amount varying from {{Convert|6|in|cm}} at the stem to {{Convert|4|in|cm}} at the stern. ''Beagle''{{'}}s [[keel]] was [[Keel laying|laid]] in June 1818, construction cost £7,803, and the ship was [[ship naming and launching|launched]] on 11 May 1820.{{sfn|Taylor|2008|pp=22–24, 36}}

The first reported task of the ship was a part in celebrations of the coronation of King [[George IV]];{{sfn|Taylor|2008|pp=22–24, 36}} in his 1846 ''Journal'', [[John Lort Stokes]] said that the ship was taken up the [[River Thames]] to salute the coronation, passing through the old [[London Bridge]], and was the first rigged [[man-of-war]] afloat upriver of the bridge.{{sfn|Stokes|1846|p=[https://archive.org/details/discoveriesinaus00stok/page/3 3]}}<ref>{{harvnb|Stokes|1846|loc=[[s:Discoveries in Australia/Volume 1/Chapter 1|Volume 1, Chapter 1]]}}. "her first exploit was the novel and unprecedented one of passing through old London bridge (the first rigged man-of-war that had ever floated so high upon the waters of the Thames) in order to salute at the coronation of King George the Fourth."</ref>