The Bonetta class was a class of three sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1755 and 1756. All three were built by contract with commercial builders to a common design prepared by Thomas Slade, the Surveyor of the Navy.

Class overview
Operators Royal Navy
Preceded byCruizer (1752) class
Built1755-1756
In commission1756-1778
Completed3
Lost1
General characteristics (common design)
TypeSloop-of-war
Tons burthen220 4394 bm
Length
  • 85 ft 10 in (26.2 m) (gundeck)
  • 70 ft 0 in (21.3 m) (keel)
Beam24 ft 4 in (7.4 m)
Depth of hold10 ft 10 in (3.30 m) (vessels without platform in hold)
Sail planSnow rig
Complement100
Armament
  • 10 × 6-pounder (short) guns;
  • also 12 x ½-pounder swivel guns

All three were ordered on 9 July 1755, assigned names on 29 July 1755, and were built as two-masted snow-rigged vessels.

Vessels

edit
Name Ordered Builder Launched Notes
Bonetta 9 July 1755 Henry Bird,
Globe Stairs, Rotherhithe
4 February 1756 Sold 1 November 1776 at Woolwich.
Merlin 9 July 1755 John Quallett,
Rotherhithe
20 March 1756 Captured 23 August 1778 by the French
in the Mediterranean.
(Recaptured 26 August 1780 by British privateer Fame and burnt).
Spy 9 July 1755 Robert Inwood, Rotherhithe 3 February 1756 Sold 3 September 1773 at Sheerness.

References

edit
  • 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.