HMS Miranda was a 14-gun wooden screw sloop of the Royal Navy. As part of the 1847 Program, she was designed by John Fincham, Master Shipwright of Portsmouth ,and is considered an improved Rattler, with the design approved on 3 November 1847. She was ordered on 25 April 1847 with the name Grinder from Royal Dockyard, Sheerness. On 3 November 1847, she was reordered as Miranda from Sheerness Dockyard. Launched in 1851, she was completed to see action in the Crimean War. In 1854 she was in the White Sea and participated in the bombardment of the Port of Kola. She then served in the Sea of Azov during 1855. Two of her crew were awarded the Victoria Cross for their bravery. Towards the end of her career she transported troops during the New Zealand Wars. She was reclassified as a corvette by 1862. She was sold for breaking in December 1869.
The Camelion class was a class of screw-driven sloops of wood construction, designed by Isaac Watts and operated by the Royal Navy. Eight ships of the class were built from 1858 to 1866 with another eight cancelled. They were initially rated as second-class sloops, but were later reclassified as corvettes.
The Cruizer class was an 18-gun class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. Brig-sloops were the same as ship-sloops except for their rigging. A ship-sloop was rigged with three masts whereas a brig-sloop was rigged as a brig with only a fore mast and a main mast.
The Fly class were built for the Royal Navy as a class of 16-gun brig-sloops; two 6-pounder guns on trucked gun-carriages towards the bows, and eight pairs of slide-mounted 24-pounder carronas along the broadsides. An extra two carronades were added soon after completion, so giving them 18 guns in practice. The class was designed by one of the Surveyors of the Navy - Sir John Henslow - and approved in 1805. The Admiralty ordered five vessels to this design in January 1805, 23 days after it had ordered the same quantity of the similar Seagull Class to a comparative design by William Rule, the other Surveyor of the Navy; it ordered two more Fly Class in August 1805, although this final pair were planked with hulls of pitch pine ("fir") rather than the normal oak used in the first five.
The Merlin class was a class of twenty-one sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1743 and 1746. They were all built by contract with commercial builders to a common design prepared by Jacob Acworth, the Surveyor of the Navy; however, there were small differences between individual vessels, with a platform deck being constructed in the hold in Swallow (i), Merlin, Raven and Swallow (ii), whereas the other seventeen had no platform deck and thus their depth in hold was thus nearly twice as much.
The Hermes class were a group of four vessels designed by John Edye of the Surveyor's Department to specifications outlined by Captain William Symonds, the Surveyor of the Navy. The design was approved in 1834. The vessels would be powered by a 140 nominal horsepower engine and carry an armament of two brass 9-pounder guns. The ships would be built in three Royal Dockyards, however, the Chatham vessel was transferred to Sheerness in 1837 prior to being laid down. Hermes was re-engined and lengthen in 1842, Megaera was wrecked in Jamaica in 1843. the remaining vessels served on many different stations of the Empire. Acheron was sold in 1855, Hermes went to the Breakers in 1864 and Volcano lasted until 1894.
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.
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, then Master Shipwright at Deptford Dockyard, and the other two were built in Deptford Dockyard under the supervision of Allin himself.
The Drake class was a class of three sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy during 1741. All were ordered in 1740, and were the first to be built by contract with commercial builders, although they were to a common design prepared by Jacob Acworth, the Surveyor of the Navy. They were the first new sloops to be built since the previous batch of eight in 1732, but they closely followed the characteristics of their predecessors.
The Wolf class was a class of three sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy during 1741–43. They were ordered in 1741, 1742 and 1743 respectively, and were the first to increase significantly in size from the 200 burthen tons which had been the normal size from 1728, to a larger 244 tons; they were to a common design prepared by Jacob Allin, the Master Shipwright at Deptford Dockyard.
The Baltimore class was a class of three sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy during 1742-43. Two were ordered in 1742 and a third in 1743, and - following on from the Wolf class of the previous year - constituted a small further increase in size from the 200 burthen tons which had been the normal size from 1728 to 1739. The hulls of all three were built by contract by commercial shipbuilders on the River Thames, each at a fixed price of £1,677.10.0d ; they were then fitted out at Deptford Dockyard for a sum of £1,781.1.9d for Baltimore, £1,737.3.1d for Saltash, and £1,726.10.11d for Drake.
HMS Hawk was an eight-gun snow-rigged sloop of the Royal Navy, the second of three Drake class sloops constructed during the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear. Launched in 1741, her principal service was as convoy escort and patrol in the Irish Sea. She was broken up at Deptford Dockyard in 1747.
HMS Swift was an 8-gun snow-rigged sloop of the Royal Navy, the last of three Drake class sloops constructed during the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear. Launched in 1741, her principal service was as convoy escort and patrol off North Carolina and in the North Sea. She was lost at sea on 31 October 1756.
HMS Wolf was a 14-gun snow-rigged sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1742 as the first of three Wolf-class sloops constructed for action against Spanish privateers during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
The Druid class was a class of two sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1760 and 1761. Both were built by contract with commercial builders to a common design derived from the Cruizer design of 1732 by Richard Stacey, the Master Shipwright at Deptford dockyard in that era, but with some noticeable differences.
HMS Stork was a 10-gun Alderney-class sloop of the Royal Navy which saw active service during the Seven Years' War. Launched in 1757, she was assigned to the Navy's Jamaica Station until August 1758 when she was captured by the French. She remained in French hands until being disarmed in 1759 and removed from service in 1760.
HMS Diligence was a 10-gun Alderney-class sloop of the Royal Navy which saw active service during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. Launched in 1756, she was a successful privateer hunter off the coast of France before being reassigned to North American waters in 1763. Fifteen years later she was briefly refitted as a receiving ship for press ganged sailors brought into Sheerness Dockyard, before being re-registered in August 1779 as the fireship Comet.
HMS Rhadamanthus was one of the initial steam powered vessels built for the Royal Navy. On 10 January 1831 the First Sea Lord gave orders that four paddle vessels be built to competitive designs. The vessels were to be powered by Maudslay, Son & Field steam engines, carry a schooner rig and mount one or two 10-inch shell guns. Initially classed simply as a steam vessel (SV), she was re-classed as a second-class steam sloop in 1846. Designed by Thomas Roberts, the Master Shipwright of Plymouth. She was launched and completed in 1832, She was converted into a transport in 1841 then in 1851 she was a troopship and by the 1860s she was a transport again. Her breaking was completed in February 1864.
HMS Shoreham was a 32-gun fifth rate vessel built under contract at Shoreham in 1693/94. During the War of the English Succession she was involved in the unsuccessful operation at Camaret Bay. At the end of the war she helped take half a French convoy off Ireland. She then deployed to North America and the West Indies. She was rebuilt as a 20-gun sixth rate to the 1719 Establishment in 1719/21. She served in the Baltic as a bomb vessel then reverted to a sixth rate. She participated in operations in the West Indies during the initial years of the War of Austrian Succession before being sold in 1744.
Royal Navy