Talbot had a length at the gundeck of 113feet and 94feet at the keel. She had a beam of 31feet, a draught of 12feet and a depth of hold of 8feet. The ship's tonnage was 500 tons burthen.[1] The Atholl class was armed with twenty 32-pounder carronades on her gundeck, six 32-pounder carronades on her quarterdeck and a pair of 9-pounder cannon in the forecastle. The ships had a crew of 175 officers and ratings.[2]
Talbot, the fourth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy,[3] was ordered on 30 April 1818, laid down in March 1821 at Pembroke Dockyard, Wales, and launched on 9 October 1824.[2] She was completed on 21 December 1824 at Plymouth Dockyard and commissioned on 21 September of that year.[1]
She was a participant at the Battle of Navarino on 20 October 1827.
She took part in Inglefield's 1854 Arctic expedition as a depot ship.
As a powder magazine off Beckton she overlooked the disastrous sinking of SS Princess Alice, a collision on the Thames on 14 September 1878.