Cyrus-class post ship

Class overview
Name:	Cyrus-class post ships
Operators:	Royal Navy
Completed:	16
General characteristics
Type:	Sixth-rate post ship (later rated as ship sloops)
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

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

References

• Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817, Chatham Publishing, London 2005.