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.
Design The two Surveyors of the Navy – Sir William Rule and Sir John Henslow – jointly designed the class. A notation on the back of the plans held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, states that the designers based their plan on the lines of the captured French sloop Amazon, captured in 1745.National Maritime Museum collections.
The Admiralty ordered six vessels to this design in February 1793; it ordered a seventh vessel in the following year. These ships were initially armed with sixteen 6-pounder guns, later supplemented with eight 12-pounder carronades (6 on the quarterdeck and 2 on the forecastle). The 6-pounder guns were eventually replaced by 24-pounder carronades.
Twenty-four more ships of the same design were ordered in 1805–1806. However, in this new batch 32-pounder carronades were fitted instead of the 6-pounder guns originally mounted in the earlier batch; the 12-pounder carronades were replaced by 18-pounders, and some ships also received two 6-pounders as chase guns on the forecastle.
Of this second batch one ship (Serpent) was cancelled and another (Ranger) completed to a slightly lengthened variant of the design.
Ships
Batch 1 (with 6-pounder guns)
Name Ordered Builder Launched Fate 18 February 1793 Randall & Brent, Rotherhithe 2 January 1794 Blew up by accident on 24 December 1796 (i) 18 February 1793 Randall & Brent, Rotherhithe 1 February 1794 Captured by the French 6 January 1806; retaken 27 January 1807 and renamed Goree; broken up in 1817, 18 February 1793 Marmaduke Stalkart, Rotherhithe 3 February 1794 Sold on 30 October 1817 (see Note 1) 18 February 1793 William Cleverly, Gravesend 14 February 1794 Sold on 28 April 1813 18 February 1793 Thomas Pitcher, Northfleet 15 February 1794 Foundered on 3 August 1809 18 February 1793 Josiah & Thomas Brindley, Frindsbury 3 March 1794 Sold on 30 October 1817 6 November 1794 Deptford Royal Dockyard 29 November 1794 Sold on 30 May 1816
Note 1: Lynx caused an international incident in 1795 when she fired on .
Batch 2 (with 32-pounder carronades)
Name Ordered Builder Launched Fate 12 July 1805 John Preston, Great Yarmouth 30 August 1806 Broken up in December 1820 12 July 1805 Robert Adams, Chapel, Southampton 1 September 1806 Sold on 18 April 1816 12 July 1805 Carver & Corney, Littlehampton 27 December 1806 Broken up in September 1817 12 July 1805 Plymouth Royal Dockyard (see Note 2) 1 May 1813 Foundered with all hands on 28 February 1814 4 October 1805 Simon Temple, South Shields 27 January 1807 Sold on 14 December 1815 19 October 1805 Thomas Owen, Topsham 22 April 1806 Sold on 20 August 1818 19 October 1805 Richard Chapman, Bideford 2 October 1807 Broken up in June 1818 19 October 1805 George Crocker, Bideford 30 October 1807 Broken up in May 1819 19 October 1805 John Preston, Great Yarmouth 30 March 1808 Convict prison ship in 1819; sold in August 1838 19 October 1805 John Cock, Dartmouth (see Note 3) 21 April 1810 Sold 6 March 1817 19 October 1805 John Cock, Dartmouth (see Note 3) 3 July 1809 Sold 8 July 1817 19 November 1805 John King, Dover 27 December 1806 Sold on 13 January 1820 19 November 1805 Nicholas Bools & William Good, Bridport 25 March 1807 Sold 6 March 1817 19 November 1805 James Betts, Mistleythorn 29 September 1806 Sold 6 March 1817; became a whaling ship and then merchantman on the North Atlantic before her crew abandoned her in October 1827 as she was in a sinking state. 19 November 1805 Josiah & Thomas Brindley, Frindsbury 11 November 1806 Sold 18 April 1822 19 November 1805 Robert Guillaume, Northam, Southampton 10 December 1806 Broken up in August 1848 19 November 1805 John Avery, Dartmouth 15 July 1809 Broken up in September 1816 19 November 1805 Nicholas Bools & William Good, Bridport 31 October 1807 Receiving ship at Devonport from 1825; broken up 1864 (ii) 30 November 1805 Jabez Bayley, Ipswich 13 September 1806 Broken up in February 1821 30 November 1805 Thomas Iremonger, Littlehampton 10 January 1807 Wrecked off Newfoundland 5 November 1813 (see Note 4) 30 November 1805 Richard Thorne, Fremington, Barnstaple 5 September 1807 Broken up in February 1814. 15 January 1806 Plymouth Royal Dockyard 13 July 1809 Sold 8 March 1819 Serpent 15 January 1806 Sheerness Royal Dockyard not laid down Cancelled 8 September 1810 25 March 1806 Deptford Royal Dockyard 20 December 1808 Sold for breaking on 27 January 1825
Note 2: The initial contractor for Anacreon, Owen of Ringmore, Devon, went bankrupt in 1810, so work was transferred to Plymouth Dockyard. Note 3: The initial contractor for North Star and Hesper, Benjamin Tanner of Dartmouth, went bankrupt in 1807 and the two contracts were transferred to John Cock. Note 4: Ranger was altered on stocks and completed to a slightly longer design, being 111¼ ft on the gundeck.
References
British Warships in the Age of Sail: 1793–1817, Rif Winfield, Seaforth Publishing, 2007.