The first HMS Valorous was a sixth-rate Combatant-class sloop of the Royal Navy.

Designed by John Staniforth MP, they were flush-decked, shallow draught and (for their dimensions) heavily armed.

Rated as a sloop, she had a design based on the Danish Praam (English 'Pram'), 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, although Valorous and her sisters were significantly larger.

In the spring of 1807 she and her sisters were ordered to the Baltic, where their characteristics would be of value as convoy escorts and particularly in support of operations ashore.