HMS Comet was the first wooden paddle-steamer built for the Royal Navy. Comet was built at the yards in Deptford by Boulton, Watt & Co, which was at the time just outside London, in 1822. She was ordered as a tug, for towing ships out of harbour when the wind was not enough to allow them to move by themselves, specifically "to be employed in towing HM ships in the Thames and Medway". The ship was designed by Oliver Lang, the master shipwright at Woolwich Dockyard. She was fitted with a two-mast schooner rig, as well as a twin cylinder side-lever engine, which produced 80 nominal horsepower.