HMS Wolf (1742)

Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Wolf
Ordered:	21 July 1741
Builder:	Thomas West, Deptford
Laid down:	31 July 1741
Launched:	27 February 1742
Completed:	4 April 1741 at Deptford Dockyard
Commissioned:	15 April 1742
Out of service:	29 October 1745
Reinstated:	July 1747
Fate:	Wrecked in Dundrum Bay, 31 December 1748
General characteristics
Class and type:	14-gun Wolf-class Sloop-of-war
Tons burthen:	243 74⁄94 (bm)
Length:	87 ft 6 in (26.7 m) (overall) 73 ft 0 in (22.3 m) (keel)
Beam:	25 ft 2 in (7.7 m)
Draught:	10 ft 6 in (3.2 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	snow-rigged
Complement:	110
Armament:	14 x 4pdrs 12 x 1/2pdr swivels

HMS Wolf was a 14-gun snow-rigged sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1742 as the first of three Wolf class sloops constructed for action against French and Spanish privateers during the War of Jenkins' Ear.^[1]

Construction

Wolf was the first of three small, fast vessels built for coastal patrol and Atlantic service and designated by Admiralty as the "Wolf" class.^{[lower-alpha 1]} Her design was similar to that of the preceding Drake class sloops but larger and more heavily armed. Construction was contracted to civilian shipwright Thomas West, who had overseen construction of HMS Drake a year earlier.

As designed, Wolf‍ '​s dimensions were in keeping with other vessels of her class with an overall length of 87 ft 6 in (26.7 m), a beam of 25 ft 2 in (7.7 m) and measuring 243 ⁷⁴⁄₉₄ tonnes burthen.^[1] She had two masts, square-rigged and supported by a trysail mast aft of the main mast. Constructed with eight pairs of gunports, she was initially fitted with fourteen four-pounder cannons in addition to twelve deck-mounted half-pounder swivel guns.^[1]

Construction took seven months from the laying of the keel in July 1741, to her launch in February 1742, at a building cost of £1,793 and an additional ₤1653 for fitting out.^[1]

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