"Archer" was commissioned on 9 March 1850 at Devonport and served on the West Africa Squadron and then from Leith in Scotland on the Fishery Protection Squadron. She decommissioned at Woolwich in November 1853 and was recommissioned in February 1854 for service in the Baltic Sea during the war with Russia. After the war she served on the North America and West Indies Station. Her second commission ended in June 1857 when she was decommissioned at Woolwich. From 1859 to 1866 she served two more commissions on the west coast of Africa. This service involved anti-slavery work on the coasts of the Bight of Benin, and was notoriously unhealthy, with tropical diseases taking a heavy toll of British seamen - between 1858 and 1866, of her five commanding officers, one died and two were invalided home. "Archer" was sold to Castle of Charlton for breaking, and was broken up in March 1866.