Class overview | |
---|---|
Name | Crocus-class brig-sloop |
Operators | ![]() |
In service | 1808 - 1825 |
Completed | 10 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Brig-sloop |
Tons burthen | 251 41⁄94 bm |
Length |
|
Beam | 25 ft 6 in (7.8 m) |
Depth of hold | 12 ft 8 in (3.9 m) |
Sail plan | Brig rigged |
Complement | 86 |
Armament |
|
The Crocus-class brig-sloops were a class of sloop-of-war built for the Royal Navy, and were the only Royal Navy brig-sloops ever designed rated for 14 guns. The class was designed by the Surveyors of the Navy (Sir William Rule and Sir John Henslow) jointly, and approved on 28 March 1807. Unlike the vast majority of other British brig-sloops built for the Royal Navy in this wartime period, which were built by contractors, construction of the Crocus class was confined to the Admiralty's own dockyards. One vessel was ordered from each of the Royal Dockyards (except Sheerness) on 30 March; four more were ordered in 1808 and a final unit in 1810. All the ships of the class survived the Napoleonic Wars and were broken up between 1815 and 1815.
In the following table, the Crocus-class brig-sloops are listed in the order in which they were ordered.
Name | Builder | Launched | Fate |
---|---|---|---|
Podargus | Portsmouth Dockyard | 26 May 1808 | Sold for breaking 7 August 1833 [1] |
Crocus | Plymouth Dockyard | 10 June 1808 | Sold for breaking 31 August 1815 [1] |
Merope | Chatham Dockyard | 25 June 1808 | Sold for breaking 23 November 1815 [1] |
Apelles | Woolwich Dockyard | 10 August 1808 | Sold for breaking 15 February 1816 [1] |
Portia | Deptford Dockyard | 30 August 1810 | Sold for breaking 6 March 1817 [1] |
Prospero | Woolwich Dockyard | 9 November 1809 | Sold for breaking 30 May 1816 [1] |
Muros | Chatham Dockyard | 23 October 1809 | Sold for breaking 18 April 1822 [1] |
Zephyr | Portsmouth Dockyard | 29 April 1809 | Sold for breaking 29 January 1818 [1] |
Banterer | Woolwich Dockyard | 2 June 1810 | Sold for breaking 6 March 1817 [1] |
Wolf | Woolwich Dockyard | 16 September 1814 | Sold 27 January 1825. [1] Worked as a whaler in the Pacific Ocean, hit Wolf Rock and sank on 6 August 1837 off Lord Howe Island. [2] |
Citations
References
HMS Kingfisher was a Doterel-class screw sloop of the Royal Navy. She was built at Sheerness Dockyard and launched on 16 December 1879. She conducted anti-slavery work in the East Indies in the late 1880s before being re-roled as a training cruiser, being renamed HMS Lark on 10 November 1892, and then HMS Cruizer on 18 May 1893. She was sold in 1919.
HMS Tremendous was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the lines of HMS Ganges by William Barnard's yard at Deptford Green, and launched on 30 October 1784.
The Cherokee class was a class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy, mounting ten guns. Brig-sloops were sloops-of-war with two masts rather than the three masts of ship sloops. Orders for 115 vessels were placed, including five which were cancelled and six for which the orders were replaced by ones for equivalent steam-powered paddle vessels.
The Cruizer class was an 18-gun class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. Brig-sloops were the same as ship-sloops except for their rigging. A ship-sloop was rigged with three masts whereas a brig-sloop was rigged as a brig with only a fore mast and a main mast.
The Fly class were built for the Royal Navy as a class of 16-gun brig-sloops; an extra two carronades were added soon after completion. The class was designed by one of the Surveyors of the Navy - Sir John Henslow - and approved in 1805. The Admiralty ordered five vessels to this design in January 1805; it ordered two more in the summer, although this final pair were planked with hulls of pitch pine ("fir") rather than the normal oak used in the first five.
The Seagull class were built as a class of thirteen 16-gun brig-sloops for the Royal Navy, although an extra 2 carronades were added soon after completion. The class was designed by one of the Surveyors of the Navy - Sir William Rule - and approved on 4 January 1805. Five vessels to this design were ordered in December 1804; eight more were ordered in the summer.
HMS Milan was a 38-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had previously been Ville de Milan, a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, but served for only a year before being chased down and engaged by the smaller 32-gun frigate HMS Cleopatra. Ville de Milan defeated and captured her opponent, but suffered so much damage that she was forced to surrender without a fight several days later when both ships encountered HMS Leander, a British fourth rate. Milan went on to serve with the Royal Navy for another ten years, before being broken up in 1815, after the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Barracouta was the last paddle sloop built for the Royal Navy. She was built at Pembroke Dockyard and launched in 1851. She served in the Pacific theatre of the Crimean War, in the Second Opium War and in the Anglo-Ashanti wars. She paid off for the last time in 1877 and was broken up in 1881.
A number of ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Dee, after one or other of the British rivers called the Dee.
HMS Merope was a Crocus-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1808. She served during the Napoleonic Wars and had a relatively uneventful career that ended with her being sold for breaking up in 1815.
HMS Zephyr was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s. She was sold in 1836.
HMS Skylark was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s. She was wrecked in 1845.
HMS Spey was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s. She was wrecked in 1840.
HMS Pigeon was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s. She was sold in 1847.
HMS Thais was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s. She was lost in 1833.
HMS Wizard was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s. She was wrecked in 1859.
HMS Lily was a 16-gun Racer-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1830s.
HMS Harlequin was a 16-gun Racer-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1830s.
The Snake-class ship-sloops were a class of four Royal Navy sloops-of-war built in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Though ships of the class were designed with the hull of a brig, their defining feature of a ship-rig changed their classification to that of a ship-sloop rather than that of a brig-sloop.