Snake-class ship-sloop

Last updated
Class overview
NameSnake class
OperatorsNaval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg  Royal Navy
In service1797–1845
Completed4
General characteristics [1]
Typeship-sloop
Tons burthen38241⁄94 (bm)
Length100 ft (30.5 m) (overall); 77 ft 3+1⁄2 in (23.6 m) (keel)
Beam30 ft 6 in (9.3 m)
Depth of hold12 ft 9 in (3.9 m)
Complement121
Armament

The Snake-class ship-sloops were a class of four Royal Navy sloops-of-war built in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. [2] [3] [4] 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. [5]

Contents

Service history

In December 1796 the Royal navy placed orders for four new sloops. The Navy Board considered two differing schools of design, one led by Sir William Rule and another by Sir John Henslow. To compare the qualities of ship-rigged and brig-rigged vessels, a ship of each design was to be completed as a ship-sloop and the other as a brig-sloop. In the end the Henslow designs won out, resulting in the Snake and Cruizer-class being adopted into Royal Navy service. [6]

The Snake-class ships were designed as 18 gun flush deck brigs with a three-masted ship rig. Of their 18 guns, 16 were 32-pounder Carronades, granting the ships a large amount of firepower for their size. [2] In terms of crew and hull design, the Snake-class was identical to the more prevalent Cruzier-class. Two ships of the class were launched, HMS Snake and HMS Victor. Reception to the design was mixed; the mounting of a ship-rig on a brig's hull made the vessels unstable in heavy seas, but also increased the survive-ability of the ship in combat. [4] Both of the original Snake-class ships were removed from service by 1810, and their role was soon filled by the larger and better armed Cyrus class. [2]

In 1827 the Naval Board revived the 1797 design and launched two new Snake-class warships, HMS Childers and HMS Cruizer. [4] [7]

Ships

Related Research Articles

Sloop-of-war Type of warship

In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term sloop-of-war encompassed all the unrated combat vessels, including the very small gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fireships were classed as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the sloop role when not carrying out their specialised functions.

Thirteen vessels of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Mohawk, after the Mohawk, an indigenous tribe of North America:

<i>Cherokee</i>-class brig-sloop

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.

Sixteen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Alert, while another was planned:

<i>Cruizer</i>-class brig-sloop Class of brig-sloops of the British Royal Navy

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.

<i>Seagull</i>-class brig-sloop

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.

Thirty-nine vessels of the Royal Navy and its predecessors have borne the name Swallow, as has one dockyard craft, one naval vessel of the British East India Company, and at least two revenue cutters, all after the bird, the Swallow:

Eight ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Espiegle

The Cyrus-class sixth rates of the Royal Navy were a series of sixteen-flush decked sloops of war 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.

HMS <i>Halcyon</i> (1813)

HMS Halcyon (1813) was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop that Edward Larking & William Spong built at King's Lynn and launched in 1813. She had one of the shortest lives of any vessel of her class.

At least four vessels of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Leveret.

<i>Speedy</i>-class brig

The Speedy class brigs were a two-ship class of brig built for the Royal Navy during the later years of the American War of Independence. They survived into the French Revolutionary Wars.

The French brig Carlotta was a brig-rigged corvetta-cannoniera or, corvetta-brig, of 10 guns, launched in 1807 at Venice as Fiamma that served the French Navy as Carlotta. HMS Belle Poule captured her in 1810 and the British Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Carlotta. She was wrecked in 1812.

HMS <i>Cruizer</i> (1828) Snake-class sloop-of-war

HMS Cruizer was a Snake-class ship-sloop launched in 1828 for the British Royal Navy. The ship was built as a revival of the retired Snake-class ship-sloops. The Navy converted her to a brig in 1831, back to a ship in 1840, and sold her at Bombay in 1849.

HMS <i>Snake</i> (1797)

HMS Snake was a British Royal Navy ship launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of brig-sloops. She captured or destroyed two French privateers and one Danish privateer. She also captured numerous small merchantmen, but spent time escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She was sold in 1816.

HMS Busy was launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of brig-sloops. She captured one French privateer and numerous small merchantmen, but spent most of her career escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She foundered in 1807 while serving on the Halifax, Nova Scotia, station.

References

  1. ↑ Winfield (2008), pp. 282 & 291.
  2. 1 2 3 Tucker, Spencer C. (2014-06-11). The Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Early American Republic, 1783–1812: A Political, Social, and Military History [3 volumes]: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. ISBN   9781598841572.
  3. ↑ Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2010-02-28). Ships of the Royal Navy: A Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present. Casemate / Greenhill. ISBN   9781612000275.
  4. 1 2 3 Winfield, Rif & Lyon, David (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889 . London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN   978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.
  5. ↑ Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1817–1863: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates (Seaforth Publishing, 2014) ISBN   978-1-84832-169-4.
  6. ↑ Gardiner, Robert (1996). The Naval War of 1812. Caxton pictorial history. ISBN   1-84067-360-5.
  7. ↑ "HMS Cruiser / Cruizer". www.pbenyon.plus.com. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
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