1/36 scale model of Cygne, on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris
Class overview
Name	Abeille
Operators	French Navy  Royal Navy
In commission	1800–1847[1]
Completed	19[1]
Cancelled	2[2]
General characteristics
Displacement	350 tonnes [3]
Length	32 metres [3]
Beam	8.7 metres [3]
Draught	3.5 metres [3]
Sail plan	Brig, 750 m2 of sail
Complement	84 men [3]
Armament	16 × 24-pounder carronades or 10 6-pounder long guns 8 × 16-pounder carronades[3]
Armour	Timber

The Abeille class was a type of 16-gun brig-corvette of the French Navy, designed by François Pestel^[4] with some units refined by Pierre-Jacques-Nicolas Rolland.^[3] They were armed with either 24-pounder carronades, or a mixture of light 6-pounder long guns and lighter carronades. Twenty-one ships of this type were built between 1801 and 1812, and served in the Napoleonic Wars.^[3]

The four first ships were ordered in bulk on 24 December 1800, but two (Mouche and Serin) could not be completed due to shortages of timbers.^[2][5] As the forerunner of the series, Abeille, is not always identified as such in British sources, the type is sometimes referred to as the Sylphe class, after Sylphe, which served as model for subsequent constructions.^[3]

• Mouche

Builder: Toulon ^[2]

Begun: 24 December 1800^[2]

Launched:

Completed:

Fate: Never completed due to lack of timber.^[2]

• Abeille

Builder: Toulon ^[6]

Begun: 24 December 1800 ^[6]

Launched: 24 June 1801 ^[6]

Completed: 21 May 1801 ^[6]

Fate: Hulked in 1844, renamed Molène and used as an achor depot in Brest in 1865 ^[6]

• Furet

Builder: Toulon ^[7]

Begun: September 1801 ^[7]

Launched: 24 December 1801 ^[7]

Completed: 25 February 1802 ^[7]

Fate: Captured by HMS Hydra on 27 February 1806 ^[7]

• Serin

Builder: Toulon ^[5]

Begun: 1802

Launched:

Completed:

Fate: Never completed due to lack of timber.^[5]

• Faune

Builder: Nantes ^[8]

Begun: 1803 ^[8]

Launched: 8 July 1804 ^[8]

Completed:

Fate: Captured by HMS Goliath on 2 August 1805 and commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Fawn^[8]

• Néarque

Builder: Caudan, Lorient ^[9]

Begun: 15 June 1803 ^[9]

Launched: 27 April 1804 ^[9]

Completed: 13 July 1804 ^[9]

Fate: Captured by HMS Niobe on 28 March 1806.^[9]

• Sylphe

Builder: Dunkerque ^[10]

Begun: June 1803 ^[10]

Launched: 10 July 1804 ^[10]

Completed: 29 September 1804 ^[10]

Fate: Captured by HMS Comet on 18 August 1808, commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Seagull ^[10]

• Adonis

Builder: Genoa (Italy) ^[11]

Begun: April 1805 ^[11]

Launched: 18 August 1806 ^[11]

Completed: 21 November 1806 ^[11]

Fate: Broken up in 1823 ^[11]

• Cygne

Builder: Le Havre Dockyard^[12]

Begun: 28 April 1806 ^[12]

Launched: 12 September 1806 ^[12]

Completed:

Fate: Ran aground and scuttled by fire to avoid capture ^[12]

• Écureuil

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• Requin

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• Béarnais

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• Génie

Builder:

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• Pluvier

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• Basque

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• Hussard

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• Renard

Builder: Genoa Dockyard

Begun: November 1808

Launched: 12 May 1810

Completed:

Fate: Seized by the British in 1814 with the capitulation of Genoa

• Zèbre

Builder:

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• Faune

Builder:

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• Actéon

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• Inconstant

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Fate:

• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Vol. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.