Roebuck class

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Roebuck- class
The Argo as the flagship of the Admiral Earl of St. Vincent at Gibraltar station in 1799
The Argo as the flagship of the Admiral Earl of St. Vincent at Gibraltar station in 1799
Overview
Type Two Decker - Battleship (Fifth rate)
units 20 built, 0 in service
Namesake John Roebuck
1. Period of service flag
period of service

Royal Navy: 1770-1817

Technical specifications
Information applies to the type ship, later construction lots showed deviations
displacement

879  ts

length

140 ft (47 m)

width

37 ft (9.5 m)

Draft

16 ft (5.30 m)

crew

280-300

drive

sail

speed

approx. 12–13  kn

Range

unlimited

Armament
  • 20 × 18 pounder in the lower battery deck
  • 20 × 9 pounders in the upper battery deck (later converted to 12 pounders)
  • 2–4 × 6 pounders on upper deck

The Roebuck class was a construction lot of a total of 20 two-deck ships of the line of the Royal Navy . The design of the class was in the hands of the Surveyors (such as the fleet supervisor) and Master Shipwright Sir Thomas Slade . It was named after the English inventor John Roebuck . The ships carried 44 cannons in two battery decks , plus two additional ones at the bow and two at the stern . This armament allowed a broadside weight of 285 pounds . Originally built for use in the American Revolutionary War , some of them were in use long afterwards.

Classification

The Royal Navy classified the ships as "Fifth rate" similar to frigates , but were classified as ships of the line. Even if these ships and other small two-deckers were often referred to as frigates, this did not comply with the regulations of the British Admiralty . This had issued binding regulations in 1750 that frigates only have one battery deck and in this could be equipped with a number of 14, 26 or 28 guns. Ships of this small size were no longer suitable to sail in line, so they were only referred to as two-deckers . In the rank of a frigate, built like a ship of the line, but neither one nor the other. But the use of 18 pounder guns made them superior to the frigates. With the introduction of new frigates in the French Navy, which could also drive 18 pounders, the 44 was only used as a troop transport, armed freighter, Navy-owned express freighter and convoy .

On November 30, 1769, the Admiralty signed the contract with the “ Chatham Dockyard ” for the construction of the type ship “HMS Roebuck”, which was followed by orders from various shipyards for 19 more ships seven years after it was commissioned. They were destined to operate in the coastal and shallow waters off the American east coast during the American Revolutionary War . Due to their design, they were therefore smaller than normal two-deckers and also had less draft than these. The first five ships of the class and the later HMS Guardian , like the larger two-deckers, had two stern galleries one above the other, but all the others had only one stern typical of the frigate.

In 1793 there were still five ships on the list of active warships, another ten were used as hospital ships , troop transports or storage ships. In these, the cannons had been removed from the lower battery deck. Overall, some of the ships were still used during the war against Napoleonic France .

losses

  • 4 ships of this class were lost due to non-military events
  • 1 ship was sunk
  • 2 ships were captured
  • 13 ships were scrapped

Ship list

Type ship

  • Roebuck
    • Builder: Chatham Dockyard
    • Appointed: November 30, 1769
    • Keel laying: October 1770
    • Launched: April 24, 1774
    • Completed: August 4th, 1775
    • Location: Demolished in Sheerness in July 1811

New war buildings

  • Romulus
    • Builder: Henry Adams, Bucklers Hard
    • Appointed: May 14, 1776
    • Keel laying: July 1776
    • Launched: December 17, 1777
    • Completed: April 7th, 1778 at Portsmouth Dockyard
    • Where: Applied on February 19, 1781 in the Chesapeake Bay by a French association
  • Actaeon
    • Builder: Randall & Co, Rotherhithe
    • Appointed: July 3, 1776
    • Keel laying: July 1776
    • Launched: January 29, 1778
    • Completed: April 17th, 1778 at Deptford Dockyard
    • Location: Sold for demolition on April 30, 1802
  • Janus
    • Builder: Robert Batson, Limehouse
    • Appointed: July 24, 1776
    • Keel laying: August 9, 1776
    • Launched: May 14, 1778
    • Completed: August 11th 1778 at Deptford Dockyard
    • Location: Renamed in 1788 to HMS Dromedary , re-used as a transporter. Abandoned as a wreck off Trinidad in August 1800 .
  • Charon (I)
    • Builder: John Barnard, Harwich
    • Appointed: October 9, 1776
    • Keel laying: January 1777
    • Launched: October 8, 1778
    • Completed: January 23, 1779 at Sheerness Dockyard
    • Location: Destroyed by fire during the Battle of Yorktown on October 10, 1781
  • Dolphin
    • Builder: Chatham Dockyard
    • Appointed: January 8, 1777
    • Keel laying: May 1, 1777
    • Launched: March 10, 1781
    • Completed: May 11, 1781
    • Whereabouts: canceled in July 1817
  • Ulysses
    • Builder: John Fisher, Liverpool
    • Appointed: April 16, 1777
    • Keel laying: June 28, 1777
    • Launched: July 14, 1779
    • Completed: January 2nd, 1780 in Plymouth Dockyard
    • Location: sold for demolition on January 11, 1816
  • Endymion
    • Builder: Edward Greaves, Limehouse
    • Appointed: February 2, 1778
    • Keel laying: March 18, 1778
    • Launched: August 28, 1779
    • Completed: November 5th, 1779 at Woolwich Dockyard
    • Location: Abandoned as a wreck on August 20, 1790 at the Turks Islands
Naval battle between the Bonhomme Richard and the Serapis , September 23, 1779, by Thomas Mitchell, 1780, US Naval Academy Museum
  • Serapis (I)
    • Builder: Randall & Co, Rotherhithe
    • Appointed: February 11, 1778
    • Keel laying: March 3rd, 1778
    • Launched: March 4, 1779
    • Completed: May 6th, 1779 at Deptford Dockyard
    • Location: captured by Bonhomme Richard on September 23, 1779 .
  • Assurance
    • Builder: Randall & Co, Rotherhithe
    • Appointed: May 20, 1778
    • Keel laying: June 11, 1778
    • Launched: April 20, 1780
    • Completed: July 15, 1780 at Deptford Dockyard
    • Where to find it: canceled in March 1815
  • Argo
    • Builder: John Baker & Co, Howden Pans, Newcastle
    • Appointed: February 26, 1779
    • Keel laying: August 18, 1779
    • Launched: June 8, 1781
    • Completed: October 15, 1781 at Chatham Dockyard
    • Location: Sold for demolition on January 11, 1816
Cybèle and Prudente fight Centurion and Diomede

.

  • Diomede
    • Builder: James Martin Hilhouse, Bristol
    • Appointed: August 14, 1779
    • Keel laying: March 1780
    • Launched: October 18, 1781
    • Completed: March 14th 1782 in Bristol
    • Location: Abandoned as a wreck off Trincomalee on August 2, 1795 .
  • Mediator
    • Builder: Thomas Raymond, Northam, Southampton
    • Appointed: December 3, 1779
    • Keel laying: July 1780.
    • Launched: March 30, 1782
    • Completed: June 15, 1782 in Portsmouth Dockyard
    • Where it remains: Renamed to HMS Camel in 1788 , continued to be used as a storage ship. Canceled in December 1810.
  • Resistance
    • Builder: Edward Greaves, Limehouse
    • Appointed: March 29, 1780
    • Keel laying: April 1781
    • Launched: July 11, 1782
    • Completed: September 17th, 1782 at Deptford Dockyard
    • Location: On July 24th, 1798 off Sumatra, probably exploded by lightning
  • gladiator
    • Builder: Henry Adams, Bucklers Hard
    • Appointed: July 13, 1780
    • Keel laying: April 1781
    • Launched: January 20, 1783
    • Completed: February 1783 at Portsmouth Dockyard
    • Whereabouts: canceled in August 1817
  • Serapis (II)
    • Builder: James Martin Hillhouse, Bristol
    • Appointed: July 13, 1780
    • Keel laying: May 1781
    • Launched: November 7, 1782
    • Completed: December 1782 in Bristol
    • Where: Sold on July 17, 1826 in Jamaica for demolition
  • experiment
    • Builder: Robert Fabian, East Cowes, Isle of Wight
    • Appointed: July 13, 1780
    • Keel laying: June 1781
    • Launched: November 27, 1784
    • Completed: January 11th, 1785 at Portsmouth Dockyard
    • Location: Sold for demolition on September 8, 1836
  • Guardian
    • Builder: Robert Batson, Limehouse
    • Appointed: August 11, 1780
    • Keel laying: December 1780
    • Launched: March 23, 1784
    • Completed: May 20th, 1784 at Deptford Dockyard
    • Location: Thrown on the beach off Cape Town during a storm on April 12, 1790. On February 8, 1791, the remains were sold for demolition.
  • Regulus
    • Builder: Thomas Raymond, Northam, Southampton
    • Appointed: October 20, 1780
    • Keel laying: June 1781
    • Launched: February 10, 1785
    • Completed: March 10th, 1785 at Portsmouth Dockyard
    • Whereabouts: canceled in March 1816
  • Charon (II)
    • Builder: James Martin Hillhouse, Bristol
    • Appointed: September 19, 1781
    • Keel laying: May 1782
    • Launched: May 17, 1783
    • Completed: February 5th, 1784 at Plymouth Dockyard
    • Location: canceled in December 1805

literature

  • David Lyon: The Sailing Navy List. All the Ships of the Royal Navy. Built, Purchased and Captured 1688-1860. Conway Maritime Press, London 1993, ISBN 0-85177-617-5 .
  • Rif Winfield: British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714-1792. Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley 2007, ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6 .

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The weight of the full spheres shot on a broadside.
  2. ↑ The councils were based on the combat strength determined by the size of the crew and the firepower and were divided from 1 to 6.
  3. ^ Robert Gardiner: Ships of the Royal Navy: the 44-gun two-decker. In: Robert Gardiner (Ed.): Nelson against Napoleon. From the Nile to Copenhagen. 1798-1801. Chatham et al., London 1997, ISBN 1-86176-026-4 , pp. 85-87.
  4. ^ Rif Winfield: British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714–1792. Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. 2007.