Baltimore-class sloop

Class overview
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Wolf class
Succeeded by	Merlin class
Built	1742-1743
In commission	1742-1762
Completed	3
Lost	2
General characteristics (common design)
Type	Sloop-of-war
Tons burthen	248 48⁄94 bm
Length	88 ft 0 in (26.8 m) (gundeck) 74 ft 0 in (22.6 m) (keel)
Beam	25 ft 1 in (7.6 m)
Depth of hold	)10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) (Baltimore and Saltash) 11 ft 0 in (3.35 m) (Drake)
Sail plan	Snow
Complement	110
Armament	10 (later 14) × 4-pounder guns; also 12/14 x ½-pounder swivel guns

The Baltimore class was a class of three sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy during 1742-43. Two were ordered in 1742 and a third in 1743, and constituted a further increase in size from the 200 burthen tons which had been the normal size from 1728 to 1739; the Baltimore was built to a design by Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, one of the members of the Admiralty Board at that time; it is uncertain whether the other two ships were built to the same design, or to the same overall dimensions but to a design prepared by Jacob Allin, the Surveyor of the Navy.

Although initially armed with ten 4-pounder guns, this class was built with nine 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 fourteen guns. The Baltimore, the only one of the three to survive beyond 1748m was converted to a bomb vessel in 1758.

Vessels

• Baltimore - wrecked 1748.
• Saltash - sold 1763.
• Drake - captured by the French 1744.

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.
• 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.