During the 18th and 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship of the British Royal Navy with a single gun deck that carried up to 18 guns. The rating system of the Royal Navy covered all vessels with 20 or more guns; thus, the term encompassed all unrated warships, including gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fire ships were classed by the Royal Navy as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the role of a sloop-of-war when not carrying out their specialised functions.
The rating system of the Royal Navy and its predecessors was used by the Royal Navy between the beginning of the 17th century and the middle of the 19th century to categorise sailing warships, initially classing them according to their assigned complement of men, and later according to the number of their carriage-mounted guns. The rating system of the Royal Navy formally came to an end in the late 19th century by declaration of the Admiralty. The main cause behind this declaration focused on new types of gun, the introduction of steam propulsion and the use of iron and steel armour which made rating ships by the number of guns obsolete.
Launched on 21 May 1797, GB No. 21 was renamed HMS Defender on 7 August the same year. She was a 12-gun Courser-class gun-brig built for the British Royal Navy at Limehouse and disposed of in 1802.
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 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 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 on 30 March 1807; four more were ordered during 1808 and a final unit in 1810. All the ships of the class survived the Napoleonic Wars and were broken up between 1815 and 1833.
The Fly class were built for the Royal Navy as a class of 16-gun brig-sloops; two 6-pounder guns on trucked gun-carriages towards the bows, and eight pairs of slide-mounted 24-pounder carronas along the broadsides. An extra two carronades were added soon after completion, so giving them 18 guns in practice. 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, 23 days after it had ordered the same quantity of the similar Seagull Class to a comparative design by William Rule, the other Surveyor of the Navy; it ordered two more Fly Class in August 1805, 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 of 1805.
The Cormorant class were built as a class of 16-gun ship sloops for the Royal Navy, although they were re-rated as 18-gun ships soon after completion.
HMS Crash was a 12-gun Acute-class gun-brig. She was launched in April 1797 as GB No. 15 and received the name Crash in August. She served against the French and Dutch in the Napoleonic Wars, though after her capture in 1798 she spent a year in the service of the Batavian Republic before the British recaptured her. She was sold in 1802.
The action of 4 April 1808 was a naval engagement off the coast off Rota near Cadiz, Spain where Royal Naval frigates Mercury, Alceste and Grasshopper intercepted a large Spanish convoy protected by twenty gunboats and a train of batteries close to shore.
The Diligence class were built as a class of eight 18-gun brig-sloops for the Royal Navy. They were originally to have carried sixteen 6-pounder carriage guns, but on 22 April 1795 it was instructed that they should be armed with sixteen 32-pounder carronades, although two of the 6-pounders were retained as chase guns in the bows. Consequently they were classed as 18-gun sloops. However, in service it was found that this armament proved too heavy for these vessels, and so in most vessels the 32-pounder carronades were replaced by 24-pounder ones.
The Albatross class were built as a class of eight 18-gun brig-sloops for the Royal Navy. They were originally to have carried sixteen 6-pounder carriage guns, but on 22 April 1795 it was instructed that they should be armed with sixteen 32-pounder carronades, although two of the 6-pounders were retained as chase guns in the bows. Consequently, they were classed as 18-gun sloops. However, in service it was found that this armament proved too heavy for these vessels, and so in most vessels the 32-pounder carronades were replaced by 24-pounder ones.
HMS Constant was an Archer–class gun-brig of the Royal Navy, launched in 1801 for service against the French during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She was variously stationed in English home waters, the Baltic, the Caribbean, and off the coast of Spain, and was responsible for the capture of at least seven enemy vessels during her fifteen years at sea. The Royal Navy sold Constant at Chatham Dockyard in 1816.
Launched on 24 April 1797, the gunboat GB No. 19 was reclassed as a gun-brig and renamed HMS Steady on 7 August the same year. She was a 12-gun Courser-class gun-brig built for the British Royal Navy at Limehouse. She sailed to the West Indies in early 1800. She was paid off in February 1803 but then recalled to service in 1805 as HMS Oronooko, a temporary prison ship at Trinidad. The Navy sold her at Barbados in 1806.
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.
HMS Cracker was an Acute-class gunbrig, launched in 1797. She was sold in 1802.
HMS Jason was a 36-gun fifth-rate Penelope-class frigate, launched in 1800. She served the entirety of her career in the English Channel, mostly in the frigate squadron of Commodore Charles Cunningham. Serving off the coast of France, especially around Le Havre and Cherbourg, she captured several French privateers and recaptured a British merchant ship in a cutting out expedition. Having only been in commission for around fifteen months, Jason was wrecked off the coast of St Malo on 21 July 1801. Her crew were saved and later exchanged, and in August her wreck was burned to prevent the French from rescuing it.
The Narcissus-class frigate was a 32-gun, 18-pounder fifth-rate frigate class of five ships of the Royal Navy. Designed by Surveyor of the Navy Sir John Henslow, the class was created to make use of shipyards that could not construct larger frigates. They were similar in design to the preceding 32-gun frigate class, the Amphion class, but were slightly shorter. Two ships were initially constructed, with a later batch of three being ordered in response to an Admiralty request for the resumption of production of proven frigate designs. The final two ships of the class were cancelled when the shipyard they were being constructed at went bankrupt. Unlike her sister ships, the name ship of the class Narcissus was armed with experimental short 24 pounders rather than 18 pounders.
