HMS Blossom was an 18-gun sloop-of-war. She was built in 1806 and is best known for the 1825–1828 expedition under Captain Beechey to the Pacific Ocean. She explored as far north as Point Barrow, Alaska, the furthest point into the Arctic any non-Inuit had been at the time. She was finally broken up in 1848. Napoleonic Wars On 26 February 1808 Blossom was in company with when they captured Sally and Hetty, William Fleming, Master. Blossom was in company with Jamaica when they recaptured the American brig Iris. In the mid-morning of 23 February 1812, Blossom was off Cabrera when a strange schooner sailed towards her, mistaking her for a merchantman. When the schooner realized her mistake a five-hour chase followed before Blossom was able to capture the schooner . Jean Bart was of 147.5 tons (bm) and had been launched in Marseilles only five weeks earlier. She was armed with five 12 and two 6-pounder guns, and had a crew of 106 men under the command of Jean Francis Coulome. She had made no captures but within the previous five days her excellent sailing had enabled her to evade two British frigates and a brig. On 18 August 1812, shortly after the outbreak of war with America, Blossom and were in sight when the letter of marque captured the American ship Grace Ann Green. Post-war Blossom was re-rated as a 24-gun sixth rate in February 1817. Between July 1824 and August 1825, she was at Deptford and Woolwich being converted to serve as an exploration ship in "icy seas". In January 1825 Commander Frederick Beechey commissioned her for exploration of the Pacific Northwest. In 1917 a copper plate was discovered in the Bonin Islands, inscribed with a message claiming the islands as a British possession: In 1827, Captain Beechey discovered a submerged obstacle in San Francisco Bay, that threatened ships sailing to the young port of San Francisco, California. His soundings revealed that it was a large rock, whose top was below the water line at mean low tide. The rock was previously uncharted, and too large to be removed from the channel by the technology available then. Beechey named the obstacle Blossom Rock, in honour of his ship. Beechey also discovered that two especially prominent giant sequoia trees on the east coast of the bay could serve as a navigational aid to locate the position of the rock,