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HMS Fury was a Hecla–class bomb vessel of the British Royal Navy.
The vessel was commissioned on June 5, 1813, from the shipyard of Mrs. Mary Ross in Rochester, Kent. Construction began in September, and the ship was launched on April 4, 1814.
Fury took part in the Bombardment of Algiers on August 27, 1816, with Constantine Richard Moorsom serving as its commanding officer.
Between November 1820 and April 1821, Fury was refitted for Arctic exploration and reclassified as a sloop. Commander William Edward Parry took command in December 1820, and the ship went on to complete two Arctic expeditions, both alongside her sister vessel, Hecla. The first of these, in 1821, marked Parry’s second attempt to navigate the Northwest Passage. During this mission, the expedition reached a permanently ice-covered strait connecting Foxe Basin with the Gulf of Boothia, which was later named the Fury and Hecla Strait in honor of the two ships.
For the second expedition, Henry Parkyns Hoppner captained Fury, while Parry transferred to Hecla to lead the overall mission. This voyage proved disastrous for Fury, which suffered severe ice damage early in the second season. On August 25, 1825, the crew was forced to abandon the ship at a location now known as Fury Beach on Somerset Island. Before leaving, the crew offloaded supplies onto the shore. These provisions later played a critical role in aiding explorer John Ross, who accessed the abandoned cache during his 1829 overland trek after losing his own vessel further south in the Gulf of Boothia.
In 1956, Captain T.C. Pullen of the Royal Canadian Navy led the HMCS Labrador on a voyage through the Northwest Passage. During the expedition, the crew retrieved two Admiralty Pattern anchors from Fury Beach on Somerset Island. These anchors, along with various supplies, boats, and other materials, had been left behind in 1825 by the crews of Fury and Hecla. For over a century, the anchors served as a well-known landmark to passing mariners.
Following their recovery, the anchors were transported to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and placed in the Maritime Command Museum in 1961. In 1972, they were relocated to the Canadian Coast Guard Base in Dartmouth, and then moved again in 1981 to the Canadian Coast Guard College in Sydney, Nova Scotia. By 1991, preparations began to include the anchors in a public exhibition. On May 6, 1998, the Canadian Forces Maritime Command officially transferred ownership of the relics to the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. Today, the anchors are on display at the northeast corner of the college’s parade square and are under the care of the Musée du Fort Saint-Jean.
Scuba diving at the sites of the Fury and Hecla is not feasible because of their remote Arctic locations and extreme environmental conditions. These vessels, which were part of William Edward Parry’s exploration missions, are thought to have been lost in the Fury and Hecla Strait—a harsh and isolated waterway in the Arctic. The area is known for its persistent ice cover, powerful currents, and difficult navigation, all of which make it unsuitable and unsafe for recreational diving activities.
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