Her next captain, George King, commanded her from 3 June 1852 to 22 November 1854. On 25 May 1853 she was engaged to convey the royal commissioners to the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City. He then took her out to the Mediterranean and then the Black Sea at the start of the Crimean War. King went on to be Commander-in-Chief, China Station. Her next captain was Swynfen Carnegie from 22 November 1854 to 1855. He went on to be Fourth Naval Lord. On 6 January 1855, under her new Captain William Peel, she became the flagship of Rear-Admiral Charles Howe Fremantle, controlling the naval transport service from Balaclava on the Crimean Peninsula during the Crimean War. Peel served with the Naval Brigade during the Crimean War. On 18 October 1854 at the Siege of Sevastopol, he picked up from amongst several powder cases a live shell with the fuse still burning and threw it over the parapet. The shell burst as it left his hands. For this he was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC); it is now displayed at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. On 13 August 1855 William Moorsom became her captain, and she remained Fremantle's flagship. Her final Crimean War captain was Edward Rice, from 5 January 1856 until she paid off at Chatham Dockyard on 23 September 1856. He ended his career as Commander-in-Chief, The Nore from 1882 until he retired in 1884 and was promoted to full Admiral three days after his retirement.