Cyrus-class post ship

Class overview
Name: Cyrus-class post ships
Operators:  Royal Navy
Completed: 16
General characteristics
Type:
Tons burthen: 454 80/94 (as designed)
Length:
  • 115 ft 6 in (35.20 m) (gundeck)
  • 97 ft 2 in (29.62 m) (keel)
Beam: 29 ft 8 in (9.04 m)
Depth of hold: 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Propulsion: Sail
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 135
Armament:
  • 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 system 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 January 1813 26 August 1813 11 March 1814 at Plymouth Dockyard Sold to be broken up at Plymouth in 1823
Levant 18 November 1812 William Courtney, Chester January 1813 8 December 1813 22 April 1814 at Plymouth Dockyard Broken up at Chatham in 1820
Esk 18 November 1812 Jabez Bailey, Ipswich March 1813 11 October 1813 14 June 1814 at Sheerness Sold at Chatham in 1829
Carron 18 November 1812 Edward Adams, Bucklers Hard March 1813 9 November 1813 22 March 1814 at Portsmouth Dockyard Wrecked near Puri, India in 1820
Tay 18 November 1812 Balthazar Adams, Bucklers Hard April 1813 26 November 1813 28 November 1814 at Portsmouth Dockyard (for sea) Wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico in 1816
Slaney 18 November 1812 Josiah & Thomas Brindley, Frindsbury April 1813 9 December 1813 23 January 1815 at Chatham Dockyard (for sea) Receiving ship in Bermuda in 1832, BU in 1838
Erne 18 November 1812 Robert Newman, Dartmouth March 1813 18 December 1813 30 March 1814 at Portsmouth Dockyard Wrecked on Sal Island in 1819
Leven 18 November 1812 Jabez Bailey, Ipswich March 1813 23 December 1813 22 January 1815 at Sheerness (for sea) Broken up at Deptford Dockyard in 1848
Falmouth 18 November 1812 Richard Chapman, Bideford April 1813 8 January 1814 July 1815 at Plymouth Dockyard (for sea) Sold for mercantile use (renamed Protector) in 1825
Cyrene 18 November 1812 Richard Chapman, Bideford April 1813 4 June 1814 12 October 1818 at Plymouth Dockyard (for sea) Sold at Bombay in 1828
Bann 18 November 1812 John King, Upnor May 1813 8 January 1814 23 January 1815 at Chatham Dockyard (for sea) Sold at Chatham in 1829
Spey 18 November 1812 James Warwick, Eling, Southampton May 1813 24 January 1814 7 February 1815 at Portsmouth Dockyard (for sea) Sold at Chatham in 1822
Lee 18 November 1812 Josiah & Thomas Brindley, Frindsbury March 1813 24 January 1814 January 1815 at Plymouth Dockyard (for sea) Broken up at Plymouth Dockyard in 1822
Hind 18 November 1812 Robert Davy, Topsham, Exeter May 1813 8 March 1814 13 July 1819 Plymouth Dockyard (for sea) Sold at Bombay in 1829
Larne 18 November 1812 William Bottomley, King's Lynn July 1813 8 March 1814 12 January 1815 Sheerness (for sea) Sold for breaking up in 1828

Notes

  1. ↑ Gardiner, p. 87

References

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