Hind-class sloop

The Hind class was a class of four sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1743 and 1746. Two were built by contract with commercial builders to a common design prepared by Joseph Allin, the Master Shipwright at Deptford Dockyard, and the other two were built in Deptford Dockyard itself.

Class overview
Operators:	Royal Navy
Preceded by:	Merlin class
Built:	1744-1744
In commission:	1744-1772
Completed:	4
Lost:	2
General characteristics (common design)
Type:	Sloop-of-war
Tons burthen:	266 ​^20⁄94 bm
Length:	91 ft 3 in (27.8 m) (gundeck) 75 ft 0 in (22.9 m) (keel)
Beam:	25 ft 10 in (7.9 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft 2 in (3.71 m) (vessels without platform in hold)
Sail plan:	Snow brig
Complement:	110
Armament:	10 × 6-pounder guns; also 14 x ½-pounder swivel guns

The first two - Hind and Vulture - were ordered on 6 August 1743 to be built to replace two ex-Spanish vessels (the Rupert's Prize and Pembroke's Prize, captured in 1741 and 1742 respectively, and put into service by the British). Although initially armed with ten 6-pounder guns, this class was built with seven pairs of gunports on the upper deck, enabling them to be re-armed with fourteen 6-pounders later in their careers.

Two more vessels to the same design - Jamaica and Trial - were ordered ten days later, on 18 August 1743; these were built under Allin's supervision at Deptford Dockyard, and were the only wartime sloops of this era be built in a Royal Dockyard.

Vessels

Name	Ordered	Builder	Launched	Notes
Hind	6 August 1743	Philemon Perry, Blackwall	19 April 1744	Lost 1 September 1747 off Louisbourg.
Vulture (written as Vulter)	6 August 1743	John Greaves, Limehouse	4 May 1744	Sold 30 January 1761 at Portsmouth.
Jamaica	18 August 1743	Deptford Dockyard	17 July 1744	Wrecked 27 January 1770 off Cuba.
Trial	18 August 1743	Deptford Dockyard	9 November 1743	Taken to pieces 3 January 1776 at Woolwich.

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.