Abeille-class brig

1/36 scale model of Cygne, on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris
Class overview
NameAbeille
Operators
In commission1800–1847[1]
Completed19[1]
Cancelled2[2]
General characteristics
Displacement350 tonnes [3]
Length32 metres [3]
Beam8.7 metres [3]
Draught3.5 metres [3]
Sail planBrig, 750 m2 of sail
Complement84 men [3]
Armament
ArmourTimber

The Abeille class was a type of 16-gun brig-corvette of the French Navy, designed by François Pestel[4] with some units refined by Pierre-Jacques-Nicolas Rolland.[3] They were armed with either 24-pounder carronades, or a mixture of light 6-pounder long guns and lighter carronades. Twenty-one ships of this type were built between 1801 and 1812, and served in the Napoleonic Wars.[3]

The four first ships were ordered in bulk on 24 December 1800, but two (Mouche and Serin) could not be completed due to shortages of timbers.[2][5] As the forerunner of the series, Abeille, is not always identified as such in British sources, the type is sometimes referred to as the Sylphe class, after Sylphe, which served as model for subsequent constructions.[3]

  1. ^ a b Roche, p.484
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference roche316 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Roche, p.379 (Requin)
  4. ^ MONOGRAPHIE DU CYGNE - Brick -1806 24-PDR BRIG LE CYGNE BY ENGINEER PESTEL 1806 -1808 MONOGRAPH Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference roche412 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).