Express-class schooner

Class overview
Name	Express class
Operators	Royal Navy
In service	1800-1812
Planned	2
Completed	2
Lost	0 or 1
Retired	1 or 2
General characteristics
Class and type	Express class
Type	Schooner
Tons burthen	17848⁄94 (bm)
Length	88 ft 0 in (26.8 m) (overall) 72 ft 7+1⁄2 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 × 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; Advice was lost in 1804 in the West Indies, or sold there in 1805.

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	Lost 1804 or sold c. 1805

References

• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.