During the
Age of Sail, warships were divided into ranks or classes. The English Royal Navy adopted a scheme of six classes or "rates" in 1626. This system was in place until the 1840s, when steam power was introduced. The vessels classed as "Sixth-rates" were used in trade protection and at times could be used as scouts for the fleet (a task normally associated with "Fifth-rates"). In 1626, a "Sixth-rate" was defined as a ship having a crew of 40 to 50 men. In 1653, this was changed, to from 40 up to 79 men. After
the Restoration in 1660, a "Sixth-rate" carried up to 24 guns, though 18 to 20 was more common. By the end of the 1600s, the crew size had grown to over 100 men, with a flush deck battery of
six pound guns. By the 1750s, a "Sixth-rate" would carry up to 28 guns. In the mid 18th-century, the definition was formally established based on ship size, armament, and crew size.[1]
With the advent of steam assisted and steam powered vessels, the term "Sixth-rate" was replaced by "Sloop" as an official type of ship in the Royal Navy. The term "Corvette", adopted from the French, was not adopted as an official ship type until 1862. This only lasted until 1888 when it was replaced by the term "Third Class Cruiser". The term sloop returned during
World War I for vessels dedicated to convoy escort. It remained in use until the 1960s. The term corvette did not reappear as an official ship type until just before the start of
World War II, as a convoy escort vessel, and is still used in some navies today.
Note that vessels captured from other countries and incorporated into the Royal Navy were rated in accordance with the ship rating classification.
Corvette classes
Late 17th-century Sixth Rate groups
Anthony Deane group. All designed by the notable Master Shipwright.
Fanfan (1666), built as a yacht β made into a harbour craft 1692.
19th-century sailing post ship (and subsequently corvette) classes
This section lists the 'post ships' of 20 to 24 guns (after 1817, up to 28 guns) which in the 1830s would be merged with the larger sloops to form the new category of corvette. From 1817 the upper limit (in terms of numbers of guns) would be raised to 28 guns.
Banterer class β 6 ships, with 22 x 9pdrs, + 10 smaller. 1806β1807
After more than half a century, the category of corvette was revived during World War II to designate a smaller form of escort vessel than the existing sloops. It was thus not comparable with the pre-1887 corvettes in the Royal Navy. Two classes of wartime corvette were designed and built in considerable numbers (see separate articles):
Note that early sloops were single-masted, including (initially) the Swift, Jamaica, and Hazard groups listed below for 1700β1711; however, all surviving sloops by 1716 had been re-rigged as two-masted, and all new sloops continued to be two-masted until the 1750s, when three-masted β ship-rigged β sloops were introduced.
From the outbreak of the
War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739, the Navy recognised that there was a growing need for smaller vessels for amphibious operations, as escorts for commercial traffic, and for minor combatant roles. Over the next six years, some 36 specialist vessels were procured (34 designed by the Navy and 2 purchased on the stocks where builders had begun them as speculative ventures), as listed below; of these, the first four were essentially repeats of the previous group of 200-ton sloops of 1732, while the later vessels were progressively enlarged. In addition, a small number were captured from the Spanish during this era, and a dozen
bomb vessels of similar construction supplemented the purpose-built sloops in a cruising role.
Ship sloops (i.e. sloops carrying three masts, and rigged as ships) were built frigate-style, and initially were referred to as frigates, in spite of their size and relative lack of guns.
Termagant (1780) β Corvette, purchased on the Stocks while building by Hillhouse at Bristol, 22 x 6pdrs and 4 x 12pdr carronades, reduced to an 18-gun Ship-Sloop in 1782, 1795 sold.
Zebra class β 3 ships, 1780β1782 (a fourth was cancelled)
Echo class β 6 ships, 1782β1785, designed by
Edward Hunt and armed with 16 6-pounders on the upper deck and 6 12-pounder carronades on the quarterdeck, with a further 2 on the forecastle
Dart class β 2 experimental ship sloops, designed by Samuel Bentham, 1796, with 24 32-pounder Carronades on gun deck and 2 32-pounder Carronades each on quarterdeck and forecastle
Arrow (1796) β taken by the French Frigates
Hortense and
Incorruptible on 4 February 1805, but sank on the same day due to the damage it had sustained.
Bittern class β 5 ship sloops, 1796 (except Brazen in 1808)
This table excludes the small
gun-brigs (of less than 200 burthen tons) that were built in considerable numbers during this period:
for these gun-brigs see
List of gun-brigs of the Royal Navy
Between 1815 and 1826 numerous additional brig-sloops of the wartime
Cherokee class were ordered; these have been included with the numbers mentioned in the previous section.
In 1852 six of the screw sloops (Archer, Brisk, Encounter, Malacca, Miranda and Niger) were reclassed as corvettes, while four others (Conflict, Desperate, Phoenix and Wasp) remained sloops.
[the 8 vessels cancelled in 1863β64 were Harlequin, Tees, Sappho, Trent, Circassian, Diligence, Imogene, and Success β although 2 were completed as the ironclads
Research and
Enterprise.]
Rosario class β 7 ships, 1860β1862 (another 6 cancelled).
Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815β1889. London: Chatham Publishing.
ISBN978-1-86176-032-6.
OCLC52620555.