The ''Cuckoo'' class was a class of twelve 4-gun

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

s of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, built by contract in English shipyards during the

Napoleonic War The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. They followed the design of the Bermuda-designed and built ''Ballahoo''-class schooners, and more particularly, that of ''Haddock''. The Admiralty ordered all twelve vessels on 11 December 1805. A number of different builders in different yards built them, with all launching in 1806.

Operational lives

Nine of the twelve vessels were lost or disposed of during the war, the survivors being sold in 1816. Enemy forces took four, of which the British were able to retake two. Seven wrecked or foundered with a loss of about 22 crew members in all. William James wrote scathingly of the ''Cuckoo'' and ''Ballahoo''-class schooners, pointing out the high rate of loss, primarily to wrecking or foundering, but also to enemy action.James (1837) Vol. V, pp. 45–46. He reports that they were "sent to 'take, burn, and destroy' the vessels of war and merchantmen of the enemy". The record suggests that none seem to have done so successfully. In the only two (arguably three) cases when they did engage enemy vessels, in each case the enemy force was much stronger and the ''Cuckoo''-class vessels were overwhelmed. James also remarks that:

Ships

Citations

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuckoo class schooner Schooners of the Royal Navy Ship classes of the Royal Navy Schooner classes