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The Cruizer-class brig-sloop HMS Pelorus aground at low water
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Class overview | |
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Name | Cruizer class |
Operators | Royal Navy |
In service | 1797–1826 |
Completed | 110 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Type | Brig-sloop |
Tons burthen | 38241⁄94 (bm) |
Length | 100 ft (30 m) (overall); 77 ft 3+1⁄2 in (23.559 m) (keel) |
Beam | 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m) |
Depth of hold | 12 ft 9 in (3.89 m) |
Sail plan | Brig |
Complement | 121 |
Armament |
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The Cruizer class was an 18-gun class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. Brig-sloops were the same as ship-sloops except for their rigging. A ship-sloop was rigged with three masts whereas a brig-sloop was rigged as a brig with only a fore mast and a main mast.
The Cruizer class was the most numerous class of warships built by the British during the Napoleonic Wars, with 110 vessels ordered to this design (including two completed as ship sloops, and another 3 cancelled), and the second most numerous class of sailing warship built to a single design for any navy at any time, after the smaller 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloops.[1]
Of the vessels in the class, eight (8%) were lost to the enemy, either destroyed or taken. Another was taken, but retaken. Fourteen (13%) were wrecked while in British service. Lastly, four (4%) foundered while in British service. In all cases of foundering and in many cases of wrecking all the crew was lost. Many of the vessels in the class were sold, some into mercantile service (of these, one at least was wrecked, but the fate of the others is generally unknown).