Artois-class frigate

The Artois class were a series of nine frigates built to a 1793 design by Sir John Henslow, which served in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Design of the class
Class overview
NameArtois class
Operators
Preceded byPallas class
Succeeded byAlcmene class
Completed9
Lost5
General characteristics
TypeFrigate
Tons burthen983 7094 bm (as designed)
Length
  • 146 ft 0 in (44.5 m) (gundeck)
  • 121 ft 7.125 in (37.1 m) (keel)
Beam39 ft 0 in (11.9 m)
Depth of hold13 ft 9 in (4.19 m)
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement270 (altered later to 315)
Armament
  • Upper Deck:
    • 28 x 18-pounder guns
  • Quarter Deck:
    • 2 x 9-pounder guns
    • 12 x 32-pounder carronades
  • Forecastle:
    • 2 x 9-pounder guns
    • 2 x 32-pounder carronades

Seven of these ships were built by contract with commercial builders, while the remaining pair (Tamar and Clyde) were dockyard-built – the latter built using "fir" (pitch pine) instead of the normal oak.

They were armed with a main battery of 28 eighteen-pounder cannon on their upper deck, the main gun deck of a frigate. Besides this battery, they also carried two 9-pounders together with twelve 32-pounder carronades on the quarter deck, and another two 9-pounders together with two 32-pounder carronades on the forecastle.

Ships in class

Ship name Builder Ordered Laid down Launched Commissioned Fate Ref.
HMS Artois John & William Wells, Rotherhithe 28 March 1793 March 1793 3 January 1794 December 1793 Wrecked on the Ballieu rocks off Brittany on 31 July 1797 [1]
HMS Diana Randall & Co, Rotherhithe 3 March 1794 April 1794 Sold to new Dutch Navy on 7 March 1815; burnt in fire at Willemsoord, Den Helder on 16 January 1839 [2]
HMS Apollo Perry & Hankey, Blackwall 18 March 1794 August 1794 Wrecked on the Haak sands off the Dutch coast on 7 January 1799 [2]
HMS Diamond William Barnard, Deptford April 1793 17 March 1794 April 1794 Broken up at Sheerness Dockyard in June 1812 [3]
HMS Seahorse Marmaduke Stalkart, Rotherhithe 14 February 1793 March 1793 11 June 1794 July 1794 Broken up at Plymouth Dockyard in July 1819 [4]
HMS Jason John Dudman, Deptford 1 April 1793 April 1793 3 April 1794 May 1794 Wrecked on rocks off Brittany on 13 October 1798 [4]
HMS Tamar Chatham Royal Dockyard 4 February 1795 June 1795 26 March 1796 April 1796 Broken up in January 1810 at Chatham Dockyard. [5]
HMS Clyde Sold to be broken up August 1814. [5]
HMS Ethalion Joseph Graham, Harwich 30 April 1795 October 1795 14 March 1797 April 1797 Wrecked on the Penmarcks on 25 December 1799 [6]

Citations

  1. Winfield, British Warships, p. 345.
  2. Winfield, British Warships, p. 346.
  3. Winfield, British Warships, pp. 346–7.
  4. Winfield, British Warships, p. 348.
  5. Winfield, British Warships, p. 349.
  6. Winfield, British Warships, pp. 349–50.

References

  • Robert Gardiner, The Heavy Frigate, Conway Maritime Press, London 1994.
  • Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. 2nd edition, Seaforth Publishing, 2008. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.