HMS Cyclops was a paddle wheel steam frigate built for the Royal Navy and launched in 1839 and taken out of service in 1861 and sold for breaking in January 1864. She saw action in the Syrian War in 1840 and the Crimean War in 1854, later being involved in laying the first Transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858.
HMS Cyclops off Spithead in 1840 – etching from a painting by William Adolphus Knell
The steam-ships Pottinger and Cyclops stranded in Thorness Bay, Cowes, on the Isle of Wight on 1 November 1846
Etching of HMS 'Cyclops in 1851
Cyclops at Sebastopol, during the first day's attack by the allied fleet and armies of France and England on 17 October 1854
Steam frigates and the smaller steam corvettes, steam sloops, steam gunboats and steam schooners, were steam-powered warships that were not meant to stand in the line of battle. The first such ships were paddle steamers. Later on the invention of screw propulsion enabled construction of screw-powered versions of the traditional frigates, corvettes, sloops and gunboats.
Russian steam corvette Vityaz
HMS Birkenhead was laid down as a steam frigate, but made redundant by screw-driven propulsion before her completion in 1845.