HMS Drake (1741)

HMS Drake was an 8-gun snow-rigged sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1741 as the first of three Drake class sloops constructed for convoy duty during the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear from 1739 to 1742. After limited service off the Channel Islands, she was sailed to Gibraltar where she was wrecked in 1742 while under the temporary command of her first lieutenant.

History
UK
Name:	HMS Drake
Ordered:	24 June 1740
Builder:	Thomas West, Wapping
Laid down:	25 September 1740
Launched:	19 February 1741
Completed:	4 April 1741 at Deptford Dockyard
Commissioned:	February 1741
Out of service:	22 November 1742
Fate:	Wrecked in Gibraltar harbour
General characteristics
Class and type:	8-gun Drake-class snow sloop
Tons burthen:	206 ​^43⁄94 (bm)
Length:	85 ft 1.5 in (25.9 m) (overall) 68 ft 8.6 in (20.9 m) (keel)
Beam:	23 ft 9.25 in (7.2 m)
Draught:	9 ft 6 in (2.9 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Snow-rigged sloop
Complement:	80
Armament:	8 × 4pdrs 12 × 1/2pdr swivels

Construction

Drake was the first of three small, fast vessels designed by Surveyor of the Navy Jacob Acworth to guard merchant convoys in British home waters after the declaration of war against Spain in 1739.[1][lower-alpha 1] She was ordered in June 1740, to be constructed by shipwright Thomas West in the civilian dockyard at Deptford. Her dimensions were in keeping with other vessels of her class with an overall length of 85 ft 1.5 in (25.9 m), a beam of 23 ft 9.25 in (7.2 m) and measuring 206 ​⁴³⁄₉₄ tonnes burthen.[1]

She had two masts, square-rigged and supported by a trysail mast aft of the main mast. Although fitted with seven pairs of gunports along her upper deck, she was armed with only eight four-pounder cannons with the remaining ports left unused. Twelve lightweight half-pounder swivel guns were also mounted on the deck, and her complement was 80 men.[1]

Active service

Drake was commissioned in February 1741 under Commander Frederick Rogers. She assisted convoys in waters surrounding the Channel Islands for the remainder of that year, then sailed for Gibraltar in December. There the captaincy was transferred to Commander John Pitman, and six months later to Commander John Stringer who continued her convoy duties in the Channel and off Gibraltar itself.

Wreck

On 22 November 1742, Drake was under the temporary command of Lieutenant Nathaniel Stephens when she was wrecked in Gibraltar harbour and left in an unsalvageable condition. The wreck lay abandoned on the Gibraltar shore for several years; it was finally sold out of service on 13 October 1748.[1]

Notes

1. Other Drake-class vessels were HMS Hawk and HMS Swift[2]

References

1. Winfield 2007, p.299
2. Winfield 2007, pp. 299-300

Bibliography

• McLaughlan, Ian. The Sloop of War 1650-1763. Seaforth Publishing, 2014. ISBN 978-1-84832-187-8.
• Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships of the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 9781844157006.