The Etna class was a class of six 16 or 18-gun corvettes with a flat hull, designed by Joseph Augustin Normand. Winfield gives the names of the designers as Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait and his pupil Charles-Henri Tellier. He further describes the vessels as being flush-decked and designed to carry a 12" mortar. However, as the British navy captured Etna within a year and a half of her launch at which time she was not carrying any mortar, it is possible that the design was modified quite early.