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

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

s of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, built by contract in English shipyards during the Napoleonic War. They followed the design of the Bermuda-designed and built Ballahoo

Ballahoo class schooner

The Ballahoo class was a Royal Navy class of eighteen 4-gun schooners built under contract in Bermuda during the Napoleonic War. The class was an attempt by the Admiralty to harness the expertise of Bermudian shipbuilders who were renowned for their fast-sailing craft...

-class schooners, and more particularly, that of Haddock

HMS Haddock (1805)

HMS Haddock was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner of 4 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1805....

. 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

Of the twelve vessels, only three were not lost or disposed of during the war, but rather were 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

Ballahoo class schooner

The Ballahoo class was a Royal Navy class of eighteen 4-gun schooners built under contract in Bermuda during the Napoleonic War. The class was an attempt by the Admiralty to harness the expertise of Bermudian shipbuilders who were renowned for their fast-sailing craft...

-class schooners, pointing out the high rate of loss, primarily to wrecking or foundering, but also to enemy action. 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

Name	Builder	Begun	Launched	Completed	Fate
Cuckoo HMS Cuckoo (1806) HMS Cuckoo was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. She was built by James Lovewell at Great Yarmouth and launched in 1806...	James Lovewell, Gt. Yarmouth Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...	January 1806	12 April 1806	21 August 1806 at Chatham Dockyard Chatham Dockyard Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...	Wrecked on the Haak Sands at the mouth of the Texel Texel Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...  on 4 April 1810 with the loss of two crew members.
Magpie HMS Magpie (1806) HMS Magpie was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner that William Rowe of Newcastle built and launched on 17 May 1806. Like all her class, she was armed with four 12-pounder carronades and had a crew of 20. She had been in British service for less than a year when she grounded on the coast of France,...	William Rowe, Newcastle	January 1806	17 May 1806	12 August 1806 at Chatham Dockyard	Taken on 18 February 1807 by French troops after grounding in a storm off Perros Perros-Guirec Perros-Guirec is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Perros-Guirec are called perrosiens.-Tourism:... , Brittany Brittany Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain... . The French took her into service as Colombe and she was in service with them until possibly as late as 1828.
Jackdaw HMS Jackdaw (1806) HMS Jackdaw was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner that William Rowe built at Newcastle and launched in 1806. She had a relatively undistinguished career, with the low point being her capture by a Spanish rowboat...	William Rowe, Newcastle	January 1806	19 May 1806	8 July 1806 at Chatham Dockyard	Taken and retaken 1807; Sold at Plymouth on 1 November 1816 for £210.
Landrail HMS Landrail (1806) HMS Landrail was a Cuckoo-class schooner built by Thomas Sutton at Ringmore Teignmouth. Like all her class she carried four 12-pounder carronades and had a crew of 20. She had a relatively uneventful career during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 until 1814 when she was taken in a notable...	Thomas Sutton, Ringmore	January 1806	18 June 1806	16 July 1806 at Plymouth Dockyard HMNB Devonport Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...	Taken and retaken 1814; paid off October 1816 and sold c. 1818.
Woodcock HMS Woodcock (1806) HMS Woodcock was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. Crane & Holmes built and launched her at Great Yarmouth in 1806. Like many of her class and the related Ballahoo-class schooners, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her...	Crane & Holmes, Gt. Yarmouth	February 1806	11 April 1806	23 July 1806 at Chatham Dockyard	Wrecked 13 February 1807 at Vila Franca do Campo Vila Franca do Campo Vila Franca do Campo is a town and a municipality in the southern part of the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese Autonomous Region of the Azores... , São Miguel São Miguel Island São Miguel Island , nicknamed "The Green Island", is the largest and most populous island in the Portuguese Azores archipelago. The island covers and has around 140,000 inhabitants, 45,000 of these people located in the largest city in the archipelago: Ponta Delgada.-History:In 1427, São Miguel...  in the Azores Azores The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
Wagtail HMS Wagtail (1806) HMS Wagtail was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. She was built by James Lovewell at Great Yarmouth and launched in 1806. Like many of her class and the related Ballahoo-class schooners, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her...	James Lovewell, Gt. Yarmouth	February 1806	12 April 1806	126 July 1806 at Chatham Dockyard	Wrecked 13 February 1807 at Vila Franca do Campo Vila Franca do Campo Vila Franca do Campo is a town and a municipality in the southern part of the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese Autonomous Region of the Azores... , São Miguel São Miguel Island São Miguel Island , nicknamed "The Green Island", is the largest and most populous island in the Portuguese Azores archipelago. The island covers and has around 140,000 inhabitants, 45,000 of these people located in the largest city in the archipelago: Ponta Delgada.-History:In 1427, São Miguel...  in the Azores Azores The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the... , three hours after Woodcock; one crew member drowned.
Crane HMS Crane (1806) HMS Crane was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. She was built by Custance & Stone at Great Yarmouth and launched in 1806...	Custance & Stone, Gt. Yarmouth	February 1806	26 April 1806	8 July 1806 at Chatham Dockyard	Wrecked off Plymouth Hoe Plymouth Hoe Plymouth Hoe, referred to locally as the Hoe, is a large south facing open public space in the English coastal city of Plymouth. The Hoe is adjacent to and above the low limestone cliffs that form the seafront and it commands views of Plymouth Sound, Drake's Island, and across the Hamoaze to Mount...  on 26 October 1808.
Quail HMS Quail (1806) HMS Quail was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. Custance & Stone built her at Great Yarmouth and launched her in 1806. Her decade-long career appears to have been relatively uneventful. She was sold in 1816.-Service:She was commissioned in June 1806...	Custance & Stone, Gt. Yarmouth	February 1806	26 April 1806	3 July 1806 at Chatham Dockyard	Sold at Plymouth on 11 January 1816 for £260 after what was apparently a completely uneventful career.
Pigeon HMS Pigeon (1806) HMS Pigeon was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. Custance & Stone built and launched her at Great Yarmouth in 1806...	Custance & Stone, Gt. Yarmouth	February 1806	26 April 1806	8 July 1806 at Chatham Dockyard	Wrecked off Margate Margate -Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....  on 15 January 1809; two crew members died of exposure.
Rook HMS Rook (1806) HMS Rook was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner, that Thomas Sutton built at Ringmore and launched in 1806. In 1808 two French privateers captured and burnt her.-Service:...	Thomas Sutton, Ringmore	February 1806	21 May 1806	28 June 1806 at Plymouth Dockyard	Captured and burnt by two French privateers off Cape St. Nicholas (San Domingo) on 18 August 1808; three crew members killed (including her captain), and 11 wounded.
Widgeon HMS Widgeon (1806) HMS Widgeon was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. She was built by William Wheaton at Brixham and launched in 1806...	William Wheaton, Brixham Brixham Brixham is a small fishing town and civil parish in the county of Devon, in the south-west of England. Brixham is at the southern end of Torbay, across the bay from Torquay, and is a fishing port. Fishing and tourism are its major industries. At the time of the 2001 census it had a population of...	March 1806	19 June 1806	24 May 1807 at Plymouth Dockyard	Wrecked off Banff Banff Bay Banff Bay is a coastal embayment in Scotland situated between the towns of Banff, Aberdeenshire and Macduff, Aberdeenshire. The Burn of Myrehouse is one of the streams draining to Banff Bay...  on 20 April 1808.
Sealark HMS Sealark (1806) HMS Sealark was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. She was built by William Wheaton at Brixham and launched in 1806...	William Wheaton, Brixham	March 1806	1 August 1806	25 May 1807 at Plymouth Dockyard	Foundered in the North Sea on 18 June 1809; only one crew member survived.