Hind-class sloop

The Hind class was a class of four sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1743 and 1746. Two were built by contract with commercial builders to a common design prepared by Joseph Allin, the Master Shipwright at Deptford Dockyard, and the other two were built in Deptford Dockyard itself.

Class overview
Operators:  Royal Navy
Preceded by: Merlin class
Built: 1744-1744
In commission: 1744-1772
Completed: 4
Lost: 2
General characteristics (common design)
Type: Sloop-of-war
Tons burthen: 266 2094 bm
Length:
  • 91 ft 3 in (27.8 m) (gundeck)
  • 75 ft 0 in (22.9 m) (keel)
Beam: 25 ft 10 in (7.9 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m) (vessels without platform in hold)
Sail plan: Snow brig
Complement: 110
Armament:
  • 10 × 6-pounder guns;
  • also 14 x ½-pounder swivel guns

The first two - Hind and Vulture - were ordered on 6 August 1743 to be built to replace two ex-Spanish vessels (the Rupert's Prize and Pembroke's Prize, captured in 1741 and 1742 respectively, and put into service by the British). Although initially armed with ten 6-pounder guns, this class was built with seven pairs of gunports on the upper deck, enabling them to be re-armed with fourteen 6-pounders later in their careers.

Two more vessels to the same design - Jamaica and Trial - were ordered ten days later, on 18 August 1743; these were built under Allin's supervision at Deptford Dockyard, and were the only wartime sloops of this era be built in a Royal Dockyard.

Vessels

Name Ordered Builder Launched Notes
Hind 6 August 1743 Philemon Perry,
Blackwall
19 April 1744 Lost 1 September 1747 off Louisbourg.
Vulture (written as Vulter) 6 August 1743 John Greaves,
Limehouse
4 May 1744 Sold 30 January 1761
at Portsmouth.
Jamaica 18 August 1743 Deptford Dockyard 17 July 1744 Wrecked 27 January 1770 off Cuba.
Trial 18 August 1743 Deptford Dockyard 9 November 1743 Taken to pieces 3 January 1776 at Woolwich.

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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