Almost every naval port in the mid 19th century had its own suite of warships which we would have called the Reserve Fleet and which Victorians called "Non-EFFECTIVE Ships, Hulks and others" in 1854.

  Some of their uses are obvious, whilst others are either not, or unstated. When not assigned a task, means that the ship is readily available as a fighting unit, as is the case of the 'Andromache'' laying at Devonport, or panned-out, Armada a 3rd Rater.

  Receiving ships were "joining routine barracks" for pay, pensions, bedding and kit etc. A "hulk" was a living space accommodation, an often dreadful place. A 'Tender' looks after the accounts, victualling, ammunitioning etc on a given station or for a given ship or set of ships. A pay yacht traversed around the anchored fleet distributing money to pay the crew. Notice the numbers of 'convict ships'. Notice by this time that the infamous ship HMS Pompee had been decommissioned and reprocessed as kindling see this file. Pompey why it is so called

  There is also an excellent but rather large record of a slightly earlier time in the convict ship Royal Charlotte for the period 1824 and 1825. It comes from the "Medical and Surgical" journal of that ship and is written by the Surgeon and Superintendent. It can be found as file ADM 101/65/4 in the National Archives.