Drake-class sloop

The Drake class was a class of three sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy during 1741. All were ordered in 1740, and were the first to be built by contract with commercial builders, although they were to a common design prepared by Jacob Allin, the Surveyor of the Navy. They were the first new sloops to be built since the previous batch of eight in 1732 (which had all been built in the Royal Dockyards), but they closely followed the characteristics of their predecessors.

Class overview
Operators:  Royal Navy
Preceded by: Bonetta group
Succeeded by: Wolf class
Built: 1740-1741
In commission: 1741-1756
Completed: 3
Lost: 2
General characteristics (common design)
Type: Sloop-of-war
Tons burthen: 201 ​66⁄94 bm
Length:
  • 85 ft 0 in (25.9 m) (gundeck)
  • 68 ft 8 in (20.9 m) (keel)
Beam: 23 ft 6 in (7.2 m)
Depth of hold: 9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) (vessels without platform in hold)
Sail plan: Snow
Complement: 80 (100 from 1744)
Armament:
  • 8 (later 10) × 4-pounder guns;
  • also 14 x ½-pounder swivel guns

Although initially armed with eight 4-pounder guns, this class was built with seven pairs of gunports on the upper deck (each port flanked by two pairs of row-ports), and the two survivors in 1744 had their ordnance increased to ten guns.

Vessels
Name Ordered Builder Launched Notes
Drake 24 June 1740 Thomas West,
Wapping		 19 February 1741 Wrecked 22 November 1742 in Gibraltar harbour.
Hawk 25 August 1740 Grevil & Whetstone,
Limehouse		 10 March 1741 Taken to pieces October 1747 at Deptford.
Swift 6 December 1740 Robert Carter,
Limehouse		 30 May 1741 Lost 31 October 1756

References
  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
  • McLaughlan, Ian. The Sloop of War 1650-1763. Seaforth Publishing, 2014. ISBN 978-1-84832-187-8.
  • Winfield, Rif. British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.
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