page_title: Arthur Cumming (Royal Navy officer)
section_title: HMS Emerald
hierarchical_section_title: Arthur Cumming (Royal Navy officer) / HMS Emerald
caption_attribution_description: English: HMS Duke of Wellington firing a Royal salute as Flagship in Portsmouth Harbour
context_page_description: Admiral Sir Arthur Cumming KCB was an officer of the Royal Navy.
  He was born in Nancy, France to Sir Henry John Cumming, a general in the British Army and received naval education at the Royal Naval College in Portsmouth. Cumming served as a midshipman in the Mediterranean and North America before being promoted to lieutenant in 1840 for his actions in the Syrian War. He remained with the Mediterranean Fleet until appointed to HMS Frolic, a sloop stationed in South America. Whilst detached from Frolic and in command of a small pinnace on 6 September 1843 Cumming and seven men boarded a Portuguese slave ship, subdued her 27-man crew and brought her back to Rio de Janeiro. He had expected to be promoted for his efforts, but was overlooked and resented the decision for the rest of his life. Cumming spent some time in the Navy's Experimental Squadron before being promoted commander on 9 November 1846.
  Cumming's first command was HMS Rattler, stationed off West Africa, during which he captured another slave ship. He saw active service against the Russians during the Crimean War, captaining the frigate HMS Gorgon and being promoted to post-captain on 19 April 1854.
context_section_description: Cumming was appointed captain of the 51-gun frigate HMS Emerald on her commissioning at Sheerness on 14 May 1859 and remained with the ship until the end of her Royal Navy career on 7 November 1863. The vessel was initially part of the Channel Fleet and as part of her duties visited Plymouth, Spithead, Torbay, Cork and Devonport. Cumming was reunited with his old commander, Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, when Emerald became his temporary flagship on 19 January 1860 in order to carry him to the West Indies where he was to replace Vice Admiral Sir Houston Stewart, another former shipmate, as Commander-in-Chief on the North America and West Indies Station.  Emerald left Devonport on 18 February and arrived at Bermuda 19 days and 6 hours later, completing "one of the quickest passages on record" at the time. The feat is all the more impressive for the fact that Cumming relied almost entirely on sail power, engaging the steam engines only when he was within 500 nautical miles (930 km) of her destination. Whilst in Bermuda Emerald ran aground and tore her coppering, the first of several times she was damaged in her career.
  Cumming and Emerald returned to Plymouth on 4 July 1860 and was heading to Keyham steam-yard on 10 July when she ran aground on a beach at Hamoaze whilst trying to avoid a merchant brig under tow, this and the Bermuda grounding were found to have damaged 60 feet (18 m) of her coppering. Cumming was next ordered to Alderney, in the Channel Islands to transport a replacement Royal Artillery garrison. On the return journey on 28 August the ship ran aground once more, whilst in the charge of a Trinity House pilot, necessitating more repairs. In September Cumming sailed to Antwerp to provide a British presence and salute to Queen Victoria who was passing through the port. Cumming made another trip to South America in April 1861 when he carried Rear-Admiral Richard Laird Warren in Emerald to his new appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Brazil Station, returning with Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Keppel.
  On his return Cumming was again ordered to America, transporting guns, shot and stores to the West India Squadron, but was hit by storms off Newfoundland and forced to turn back to Plymouth. Once again Emerald was damaged, losing three boats, damaging rigging and equipment and being said to leak "like a sieve". This necessitated another period of repair in Keyham, before Cumming set out for Brazil once more, this time encountering storms in the Bay of Biscay and again being damaged and repaired in dock.  Emerald saw service in the Baltic and participated in propeller trials for the Admiralty but was decommissioned in 1863 and sold in 1869.
  Cumming was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 13 May 1867. In November of that year he became part of the Royal Navy's Packet Service and served in that role as an additional captain in HMS Victory, under the command of Captains Frederick Beauchamp Paget Seymour and George Le Geyt Bowyear. During this time Victory served as the flagship of the Port Admiral of Portsmouth and Cumming transferred to HMS Duke of Wellington when she became the flagship on 2 March 1869. Cumming remained on the Duke of Wellington, on harbour service duties, until 26 February 1870.
caption: HMS Duke of Wellington firing a salute during her time as flagship in Portsmouth
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