Merlin-class sloop

Class overview
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Baltimore class
Succeeded by	Hind class
Built	1744-1746
In commission	1744-1780
Completed	21
Lost	7
General characteristics (common design)
Type	Sloop-of-war
Tons burthen	268 77⁄94 bm
Length	91 ft 0 in (27.7 m) (gundeck) 74 ft 9 in (22.8 m) (keel)
Beam	26 ft 0 in (7.9 m)
Depth of hold	12 ft 0 in (3.66 m) (vessels without platform in hold); 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) (vessels with platform in hold)
Sail plan	Snow brig
Complement	110
Armament	10 × 6-pounder guns; also 14 x ½-pounder swivel guns

The Merlin class was a class of twenty-one sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1743 and 1746. They were all built by contract with commercial builders to a common design prepared by Jacob Acworth, the Surveyor of the Navy.

The first two - Swallow and Merlin - were ordered on 7 July 1743 to be built to replace two ex-Spanish vessels (the Galgo and Peregrine's Prize, both captured in 1742, 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 - Speedwell and Falcon - were ordered on 30 March 1744; another two were ordered five days later - Hazard and Lizard; four more followed on 23 May - Hinchingbrooke, Tavistock, Hound and Hornet; and three others were ordered later that year - Raven on 27 August, Swan on 6 October and Badger on 10 October. On 5 April 1745 five more were ordered - a second Falcon (named to replace the first, captured in the same year), Scorpion, a second Swallow (similarly to replace the first, wrecked in 1744), Kingfisher and Dispatch - and a single vessel - Viper was ordered on 11 April. A final pair - Grampus and Saltash - were ordered on 9 January 1746.

Vessels

• Swallow - wrecked 1744.
• Merlin - sold 1748.
• Speedwell - sold 1750.
• Falcon - captured by French 1745, retaken 1746 and renamed Fortune, sold 1770.
• Hazard - sold 1749.
• Lizard - wrecked 1748.
• Hinchingbrooke - captured by French 1746.
• Tavistock - renamed Albany in 1747, sold 1763.
• Hound - sold 1773.
• Hornet - sold 1770.
• Raven - sold 1763.
• Swan - sold 1763.
• Badger - wrecked 1762.
• Falcon - wrecked 1759.
• Scorpion - wrecked 1762.
• Swallow - sold 1769.
• Kingfisher - sold 1763.
• Dispatch - sold 1773.
• Viper - renamed Lightning and converted to a fireship in 1755, sold 1762.
• Grampus - converted to a fireship in 1762, renamed Strombolo in 1771, sold 1780.
• Saltash - sold 1773.

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.