Name Cyrus-class post ships Completed 16 | Operators Royal Navy | |
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) | ||
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 older 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.