The first HMS Valorous was a sixth-rate

Sixth-rate

Sixth rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for small warships mounting between 20 and 24 nine-pounder guns on a single deck, sometimes with guns on the upper works and sometimes without.-Rating:...

 Combatant-class sloop

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

 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...

. She was rated as "18 guns" but carried twenty (or twenty-two) 24-pounder carronade

Carronade

The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and anti-crew weapon...

s.

She was built in Hull

Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...

 as one of a class of three (the others being Dauntless

HMS Dauntless (1804)

The first HMS Dauntless was a sixth-rate Combatant-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She was nominally rated at "18 guns", but carried twenty 24-pounder carronades.-History:...

 and Combatant) and launched in 1804. Designed by John Stainforth MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

, they were flush-decked, shallow draught and (for their dimensions) heavily armed. Rated as a sloop

Sloop

A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....

, she had a design based on the Danish Praam (English 'Pram'

Pram (ship)

A pram or pramm describes a type of shallow-draught flat-bottomed ship.They were used in Europe during the 18th century, particularly in the Baltic Sea during the Great Northern War and Napoleonic Wars, as the pram's shallow draught allowed it to approach the shore. They typically carried 10-20...

), allowing the combination of heavy armament with a draught of only 11 feet. Her design may well have been influenced by the flush-decked, shallow draught vessels of Napoleon's invasion fleet

Napoleon's invasion of England

Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom at the start of the War of the Third Coalition, although never carried out, was a major influence on British naval strategy and the fortification of the coast of south-east England. French attempts to invade Ireland in order to destabilise the...

, although Valorous and her sisters were significantly larger.

Valorous entered service in 1805, with the anti-invasion flotillas stationed in The Downs

The Downs

The Downs are a roadstead or area of sea in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent coast, between the North and the South Foreland in southern England. In 1639 the Battle of the Downs took place here, when the Dutch navy destroyed a Spanish fleet which had sought refuge...

. In the spring of 1807 she and her sisters were ordered to the Baltic

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

where their characteristics would be of value as convoy escorts and particularly in support of operations ashore. She became an Army depot ship in 1810 (possibly 1816?) and was sold on 7 May 1817.