Merlin-class sloop

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 (figures for Hazard)
Type:	Sloop-of-war
Tons burthen:	272 83⁄94 bm
Length:	92 ft 3.75 in (28.1 m) (gundeck) 74 ft 11.125 in (22.8 m) (keel)
Beam:	26 ft 2 in (8.0 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft 0 in (3.66 m)
Sail plan:	Snow brig
Complement:	110
Armament:	10 × 6-pounder guns

The Merlin class was a class of twenty-one sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1744 and 1746.

Ships

• 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 coverted to a fireship in 1755, sold 1762.
• Grampus - converted to a fireship in 1762, renamed Strombolo in 1771, sold 1780.
• Saltash - sold 1773.

Referecences

• 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. OCLC 67375475. 
• 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.