Express-class schooner

Class overview
Name: Express class
Operators:  Royal Navy
In service: 1800-1812
Planned: 2
Completed: 2
Retired: 2
General characteristics [1]
Class & type: Express class
Type: Schooner
Tonnage: 178 4894 (bm)
Length:
  • 88 ft 0 in (26.8 m) (overall)
  • 72 ft 7 12 in (22.1 m) (keel)
Beam: 21 ft 6 in (6.6 m)
Depth of hold: 13 ft 1 in (4.0 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Schooner
Complement: 30
Armament: 6 x 12-pounder carronades

The Express class was a class of two schooner-rigged advice-boats of the Royal Navy. John Henslow designed the schooners to carry dispatches. To achieve speed they were long and sharp-lined. However, the Navy did not like them and so the Navy Board ordered no more after the launch of the two in 1800.

Both were commissioned in January 1801 for Jersey, and both sailed in a year or so for Trinidad. Express served until she was sold in 1813; the Navy sold Advice in 1805.[1]

The Navy tried again to find a design for an advice-boat. In 1804 it ordered 18 Ballahoo-class schooners. Then a year later it ordered 12 Cuckoo-class schooners. Both classes were built in Bermuda.

Ships

Name Builder Begun Launched Fate
Express John Randall & Co., Rotherhithe July 1800 December 1800 Sold 1813
Advice John Randall & Co., Rotherhithe July 1800 December 1800 Sold c. 1805

Citations

  1. 1 2 Winfield (2008), p.355.

References

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