Hind-class sloop

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 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 two at Deptford.

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

References