HMS Glasgow was a wooden screw frigate, the fifth ship of the name to serve in the Royal Navy. Glasgow was launched at Portsmouth Dockyard on 28 March 1861. Despite ironclad ships being introduced in 1858 and effectively rendering wooden hulls obsolete the Glasgow was built of wood to use up some of the extensive stocks of ship building timber then stored in Britain. Indeed the Glasgow would be one of the last Royal Navy Vessels to be made entirely from wood. Her one and only foreign deployment was as flagship to the East Indies from 1871-5. From 24 May 1871 until her decommissioning she was commanded by Captain Theodore Morton Jones. During this time she was the flagship of Rear-Admiral James Cockburn and then of Arthur Cumming, following Cockburn's death. Glasgow was paid off on 20 July