HMS Renard was a schooner of the Royal Navy, built by John Cuthbert, Millers Point, New South Wales and launched 16 January 1873.[1]
She commenced service on the Australia Station at Sydney in 1873 for anti-blackbirding operations in the South Pacific and later hydrographic surveys around Chesterfield Islands, Fiji and the Russell Islands.[1] She ran aground on an uncharted reef in late 1874. Her captain was deemed blameless in the matter of the grounding.[2] Under the command of Captain Pugh, she was engaged in anti-blackbirding operations in 1876 and visited Nukufetau in the Ellice Islands in search of Bully Hayes, who was notorious for his blackbirding activities.[3] [4]
She was paid off in 1883 and sold.[1] She was then employed in the Solomon Islands trade.