Cormorant-class ship-sloop

The Cormorant class were built as a class of 16-gun ship sloops for the Royal Navy, although an extra 2 guns were added soon after completion.

Design
The class was designed jointly by the two Surveyors of the Navy - Sir William Rule and Sir John Henslow - and six vessels to this design were ordered in February 1793; a seventh vessel was ordered in the following year. Twenty-four more were ordered to the same design in 1805 - 1806, although in this new batch 32-pounder carronades were fitted instead of the 6 pounders originally mounted in the earlier batch; of this second batch one ship (Serpent) was cancelled and another (Ranger) completed to a slightly lengthened variant of the design.

Batch 1 (with 6-pounder guns)

 * Note 1: The Lynx caused an international incident in 1795 when she fired on the USRC Eagle.

Batch 2 (with 32-pounder carronades)

 * Note 2: The initial contractor for the 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: The Ranger was altered on stocks and completed to a slightly longer design, being 111¼ ft on the gundeck.