The ''Seagull'' class were built as a class of thirteen 16-gun brig-sloops for 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 ...

, although an extra 2

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 mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main func ...

s were added soon after completion. The class was designed by one of the Surveyors of the Navy -

Sir William Rule ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

- and approved on 4 January 1805. Five vessels to this design were ordered in December 1804; eight more were ordered in the summer of 1805.

Armament

Unlike the larger s, whose main battery was composed of 32-pounder carronades, the ''Seagull'' class (and the similar s designed by Rule's co-surveyor -

Sir John Henslow Sir John Henslow (9 October 1730 – 22 September 1815) was Surveyor to the Navy (Royal Navy) a post he held jointly or solely from 1784 to 1806. Career He was 7th child of John Henslow a master carpenter in the dockyard at Woolwich

) were armed with a main battery of 24-pounder slide-mounted carronades.

Ships

References

* {{Seagull class brig sloop Sloops of the Royal Navy Sloop classes