Baltimore-class sloop

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Class overview
Operators Royal Navy
Preceded by Wolf class
Succeeded by Merlin class
Built1742-1743
In commission1742-1762
Completed3
Lost2
General characteristics (common design)
TypeSloop-of-war
Tons burthen248 4894 bm
Length
  • 88 ft 0 in (26.8 m) (gundeck)
  • 74 ft 0 in (22.6 m) (keel)
Beam25 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 planSnow
Complement110
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; 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 sloops in 1744 had their ordnance increased to fourteen guns. Baltimore, the only one of the three to survive beyond 1748, was converted into a bomb vessel in 1758.

Vessels[]

Name Ordered Builder Launched Notes
Baltimore 7 July 1742 Thomas West,
Deptford
30 December 1742 Sold 16 December 1762
19 July 1742 John Quallett,
Rotherhithe
30 December 1742 Sunk 24 June 1746
off Beachy Head.
5 February 1743 John Buxton, Jnr.,
Deptford
28 September 1743 Sold 18 October 1748

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.
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