The ''Snake-''class ship-sloops were a class of four

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sloops-of-war built in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.Winfield, Rif & Lyon, David (2004). '' The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889''. London: Chatham Publishing. .

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Though ships of the class were designed with the hull of a brig, their defining feature of a ship-rig changed their classification to that of a ship-sloop rather than that of a brig-sloop.

Service history

In December 1796 the Royal navy placed orders for four new sloops. The

Navy Board The Navy Board (formerly known as the Council of the Marine or Council of the Marine Causes) was the Regulatory agency, commission responsible for the day-to-day civil administration of the Royal Navy between 1546 and 1832. The board was headqua ...

considered two differing schools of design, one led by Sir William Rule and another by Sir John Henslow. To compare the qualities of ship-rigged and brig-rigged vessels, a ship of each design was to be completed as a ship-sloop and the other as a brig-sloop. In the end the Henslow designs won out, resulting in the ''Snake'' and ''Cruizer''-class being adopted into Royal Navy service. The ''Snake''-class ships were designed as 18 gun

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brigs with a three-masted ship rig. Of their 18 guns, 16 were 32-pounder

Carronade A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the last quarter of the 18th century to the mid-19th cen ...

s, granting the ships a large amount of firepower for their size. In terms of crew and hull design, the ''Snake''-class was identical to the more prevalent ''Cruzier-''class. Two ships of the class were launched, HMS ''Snake'' and HMS ''Victor''. Reception to the design was mixed; the mounting of a ship-rig on a brig's hull made the vessels unstable in heavy seas, but also increased the survive-ability of the ship in combat. Both of the original ''Snake''-class ships were removed from service by 1810, and their role was soon filled by the larger and better armed ''Cyrus'' class. In 1827 the Naval Board revived the 1797 design and launched two new ''Snake''-class warships, HMS ''Childers'' and HMS ''Cruizer''.

Ships

* HMS ''Snake'' (1797) * HMS ''Victor'' (1798) * HMS ''Childers'' (1827) * HMS ''Cruizer'' (1828)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruizer Class Brig-Sloop Sloop classes