Why are several French sloop classes so often overlooked?
Short answerBecause sloops usually performed routine, unglamorous duties while cruisers received the risky and newsworthy missions that attracted historical attention.
NotesFrench sloops attracted little attention for the same reason that many British sloops did: their normal assignments rarely produced newspaper stories. High-risk missions were more likely to go to a cruiser. A sloop could still find itself in an unexpected crisis, but that was less likely to be its intended task. The distribution of assignments therefore helps explain why cruisers acquired more prominent public histories.