Cyrus-class ship-sloop
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cyrus-class post ships |
| Operators |  Royal Navy |
| Completed | 16 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | list error: <br /> list (help) Sixth-rate post ship (later rated as ship sloops) |
| Tons burthen | 454 80/94 (as designed) |
| Length | list error: <br /> list (help) 115 ft 6 in (35.20 m) (gundeck) 97 ft 2 in (29.62 m) (keel) |
| Beam | 29 ft 8 in (9.04 m) |
| Propulsion | Sail |
| Sail plan | Full rigged ship |
| Complement | 135 |
| Armament | list error: <br /> list (help) UD: 20 × 32-pounder carronades and 2 × 6-pounder chase guns |
The Cyrus-class sixth rates of the Royal Navy were a series of sixteen post ships built to an 1812 design by Sir William Rule, the Surveyor of the Navy. The first nine ships of the class were launched in 1813 and the remaining seven in 1814. The vessels of the class served at the end of the Napoleonic War. They were built on the lines of HMS Hermes, which was based in turn on the French ship Bonne Citoyenne.
The Cyrus class was intended to be the counter to the new Frolic class ship-rigged sloops that were under construction for the United States Navy. No encounter took place between any vessel of the Frolic class and one of the Cyrus class, but HMS Levant was captured by the American frigate USS Constitution[1]
With the re-organisation of the rating stystem which took place in the Royal Navy effective from 1 January 1817, the Cyrus class flush-decked ships were re-classified as 20-gun sloops.
Ships in class
| Name | Ordered | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Completed | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medina | 18 November 1812 | Edward Adams, Bucklers Hard | January 1813 | 13 August 1813 | 20 December 1813 at Portsmouth Dockyard | Sold to be broken up at Rotherhithe in 1832. |
| Cyrus | 18 November 1812 | William Courtney, Chester | ||||
| Levant | 18 November 1812 | William Courtney, Chester | ||||
| Esk | 18 November 1812 | Jabez Bailey, Ipswich | ||||
| Carron | 18 November 1812 | Edward Adams, Bucklers Hard | ||||
| Tay | 18 November 1812 | Balthazar Adams, Bucklers Hard | ||||
| Slaney | 18 November 1812 | Josiah & Thomas Brindley, Frindsbury | ||||
| Erne | 18 November 1812 | Robert Newman, Dartmouth | ||||
| Leven | 18 November 1812 | Jabez Bailey, Ipswich | ||||
| Falmouth | 18 November 1812 | Richard Chapman, Bideford | ||||
| Cyrene | 18 November 1812 | Richard Chapman, Bideford | ||||
| Bann | 18 November 1812 | John King, Upnor | ||||
| Spey | 18 November 1812 | James Warwick, Eling, Southampton | ||||
| Lee | 18 November 1812 | Josiah & Thomas Brindley, Frindsbury | ||||
| Hind | 18 November 1812 | Robert Davy, Topsham, Exeter | ||||
| Larne | 18 November 1812 | William Bottomley, King's Lynn |
Notes
- ^ Gardiner, p.87
References
- Gardiner, Robert (1996). The Naval War of 1812. Caxton pictorial history. ISBN 1-84067-360-5.
- Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817, Chatham Publishing, London 2005.