Designed by Surveyor of the Navy Sir Edward Hunt the first iteration, consisting of four ships, was constructed as a rival to the similar Flora-class frigate.

Strongly built ships, the Perseverance class provided favourable gunnery characteristics and was highly manoeuvrable, but bought these traits with a loss of speed.

The ships of the class saw wide-ranging service throughout the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, serving on blockades, in fleets, and on cruises on a large variety of Royal Navy stations.

Of the eleven completed ships of the class five were lost in shipwrecks, while Iphigenia was captured by the French at Grand Port but later recaptured.

In the early years of the American Revolutionary War the British Admiralty noted the success of the French Navy's large frigates of twenty-eight and thirty main guns.

[9] As well as this the ships would go on to be thought of very favourably in combat, because even when victualled for long journeys they provided a large amount of freeboard with which to keep guns in use.

[Note 1] These favourable gunnery characteristics came at a cost to the class's speed, however, but they made up for this by retaining a high level of manoeuvrability and were very weatherly.

[1] In response to positive trials of all three designs by Hunt and Williams, more vessels were ordered later in the Revolutionary War to a variety of civilian dockyards.

[14] With threats of invasion ongoing and peace with France being uncertain, St Vincent was tasked with continuing to build frigates at the same pace as his predecessor, but with far less extravagance and expense.

He was of the opinion that the Perseverance-class frigates were of the perfect size for this strategy, with Inconstant being especially singled out as a model ship, and as such orders were put forth for the class to be revived.

[18] While there was little push back against the order, it has since been suggested by the naval historian Robert Gardiner that the whole revival was a false economy that did not assist St Vincent's finances as he had hoped.

[15][21] While their high gun ports provided the same benefits as the first iteration's, the ships of the class struggled to reach above eleven or twelve knots and did not catch the wind easily when at sea.

They were to measure 869 50⁄94 tons burthen, and their crew complement was set slightly lower than the original iteration of the class; at 260, but by 1815 this had been raised to 264.

[23] While ships of the Perseverance class were used in a variety of different roles throughout their careers, all continued to be classified as fifth-rate frigates apart from Tribune, which was razeed as a 24-gun corvette in 1831.

[37] On 11 February 1789 Smith sailed her to the East Indies Station, where on 18 November 1791 the frigate was present at but did not actively participate in the battle of Tellicherry.

[41] Under him she sailed to the East Indies Station, and on 18 November 1791 she fought and captured the French 32-gun frigate Résolue in the battle of Tellicherry, despite the two nations not being at war.

[41][42][43] In March 1797 Phoenix was transferred to the Channel Fleet; she captured the French 4-gun privateer L'Espiegle off Waterford on 18 May, 1-gun Le Brave off Cape Clear Island on 24 April 1798, 20-gun La Caroline on 31 May, and 20-gun Foudroyant on 23 January 1799.

Phoenix then captured the French 14-gun privateer Le Charles alongside the ship-sloop HMS Jalouse on 29 January 1810, with Mudge then being replaced by Captain James Bowen who sailed the frigate to the East Indies Station on 11 May.

She then received a refit at Woolwich Dockyard between January and February 1793, and was recommissioned under Captain Augustus Montgomery to join Admiral Lord Howe's Channel Fleet.

[50][51] She recaptured the 14-gun brig HMS Speedy fifteen days later, before joining a squadron under the command of Captain Horatio Nelson in August.

[52] Under Commander John Ayscough Inconstant initially served in the North Sea, before moving to participate in French Royalist operations in Quiberon Bay in June 1800.

Having been refitted again at Portsmouth between September and December of that year, Inconstant was recommissioned in October by Captain John Quilliam to serve in the North Sea.

Leda sailed to the Mediterranean on 7 April, where she captured the French 22-gun ship L'Eclair on 9 June and served at the siege of Toulon.

While off Madeira on 11 December 1795, two of Leda's guns came loose in a storm and broke through the side of the ship, through which water began to enter.

[2] Tribune was one of the vessels that chased the French 74-gun ship of the line Vétéran into the Baie de La Forêt on 26 August 1806.

[32] Tribune was recommissioned by Captain Nesbit Willoughby in August 1818, and the ship received a refit for foreign service between October 1818 and December 1819.

[Note 8][32] Shannon was originally ordered under the name Pallas, but was renamed in November 1802 and commissioned in July 1803 by Captain Edward Leveson-Gower.

[32] While doing so she was driven onto rocks underneath the gun batteries of La Hogue in a storm on 10 December, where she was captured by French soldiers with the loss of three crewmen.

[32] As such she participated in the successful invasion of Île Bonaparte on 8 July 1810,[64] but was subsequently captured by the French at the battle of Grand Port on 28 August.

[24] In 1810 Cole was replaced by Captain William Lye, and the ship participated in the invasion of Isle de France in December of that year.