Niger-class frigate
 | This article includes a improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2013) ) |
.jpg) HMS Alarm in 1758
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Niger class |
| Built | 1757–1766 |
| In commission | 1759–1814 |
| Completed | 11 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Frigate |
| Tons burthen | 67967⁄94 (as designed) |
| Length | 125 ft (38 m) |
| Beam | 35 ft 2 in (11 m) |
| Depth of hold | 12 ft (4 m) |
| Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement | 220 |
| Armament |
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The Niger-class frigates were 32-gun
fifth rate produced for the Royal Navy. They were designed in 1757 by Sir Thomas Slade, and were an improvement on his 1756 design for the 32-gun Southampton-class
frigates.
Slade's design was approved in September 1757, on which date four ships were approved to be built to these plans - three by contract and a fourth in a royal dockyard. Seven more ships were ordered to the same design between 1759 and 1762 - three more to be built by contract and four in royal dockyards. Stag and Quebec were both reduced to 28-gun sixth rates in 1778, but were then restored to 32-gun fifth rates in 1779.
Ships in class
- Stag
- Ordered: 19 September 1757
- Built by: Thomas Stanton & Company, Rotherhithe.
- Keel laid: 26 September 1757
- Launched: 4 September 1758
- Completed: 4 December 1758 at Deptford Dockyard.
- Fate: Taken to pieces at Deptford Dockyard in July 1783.
- Alarm
- Ordered: 19 September 1757
- Built by: John Barnard & John Turner, Harwich.
- Keel laid: 26 September 1757
- Launched: 19 September 1758
- Completed: 24 June 1759 at the builder's shipyard.
- Fate: Taken to pieces at Portsmouth Dockyard in September 1812.
- Aeolus
- Ordered: 19 September 1757
- Built by: Thomas West, Deptford.
- Keel laid: September 1757
- Launched: 29 November 1758
- Completed: 18 January 1759 at Deptford Dockyard.
- Fate: Renamed Guernsey on 7 May 1800. Taken to pieces at Sheerness Dockyard in April 1801.
- Niger
- Ordered: 19 September 1757
- Built by: Sheerness Dockyard.
- Keel laid: 7 February 1758
- Launched: 25 September 1759
- Completed: 24 November 1759.
- Fate: Renamed Negro 1813. Sold at Portsmouth Dockyard on 29 September 1814.
- Montreal
- Ordered: 6 June 1759
- Built by: Sheerness Dockyard.
- Keel laid: 26 April 1760
- Launched: 15 September 1761
- Completed: 10 October 1761.
- Fate: Captured by French squadron off Gibraltar on 1 May 1779.
- Quebec
- Ordered: 16 July 1759
- Built by: John Barnard & John Turner, Harwich.
- Keel laid: July 1759
- Launched: 14 July 1760
- Completed: 9 August 1760 at the builder's shipyard.
- Fate: Blew up and sunk in action against French frigate La Surveillante off Ushant on 6 October 1779.
- Pearl
- Ordered: 24 March 1761
- Built by: Chatham Dockyard.
- Keel laid: 6 May 1761
- Launched: 27 March 1762
- Completed: 14 May 1762.
- Fate: Renamed Prothee 19 March 1825. Sold at Portsmouth Dockyard on 14 January 1832.
- Emerald
- Ordered: 24 March 1761
- Built by: Hugh Blaydes, Hull.
- Keel laid: 13 May 1761
- Launched: 8 June 1762
- Completed: October 1762 at the builder's shipyard.
- Fate: Taken to pieces at Deptford Dockyard in October 1793.
- Winchelsea
- Ordered: 11 August 1761
- Built by: Sheerness Dockyard.
- Keel laid: 29 March 1762
- Launched: 31 May 1764
- Completed: 26 June 1766.
- Fate: Sold at Sheerness Dockyard on 3 November 1813.
- Glory
- Ordered: 30 January 1762
- Built by: Hugh Blaydes & Thomas Hodgson, Hull.
- Keel laid: March 1762
- Launched: 24 October 1763
- Completed: December 1763 at the builder's shipyard.
- Fate: Taken to pieces at Woolwich Dockyard in January 1786.
- Aurora
- Ordered: 8 December 1762
- Built by: Chatham Dockyard.
- Keel laid: 10 October 1763
- Launched: 13 January 1766
- Completed: 24 July 1769.
- Fate: Lost with all hands in the Indian Ocean (disappeared, fate unknown) in January 1770.
References
- Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates, Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. ISBN 0-85177-601-9.
- David Lyon, The Sailing Navy List, Conway Maritime Press, London 1993. ISBN 0-85177-617-5.
- Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714 to 1792, Seaforth Publishing, London 2007. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.