HMS Wolf (1742)

Last updated

Wolf (1742) RMG J4219.png
Drawing showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for the Wolf, 1741
History
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg Great Britain
NameHMS Wolf
Ordered21 July 1741
BuilderThomas West, Deptford
Laid down31 July 1741
Launched27 February 1742
Completed15 April 1741 at Deptford Dockyard
CommissionedFebruary 1742
Out of service29 October 1745
ReinstatedJuly 1747
FateWrecked in Dundrum Bay, 31 December 1748
General characteristics
Class and type14-gun Wolf-class sloop-of-war
Tons burthen246 25⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 89 ft 6 in (27.3 m) (gundeck) [lower-alpha 1]
  • 73 ft 0.5 in (22.3 m) (keel)
Beam25 ft 2.125 in (7.7 m)
Draught10 ft 6 in (3.2 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail plan snow-rigged
Complement110
Armament
  • 14 × 4-pdrs
  • 12 × 1⁄2-pdr swivels

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. [1]

Contents

Construction

Wolf was the first of three small, fast vessels built for coastal patrol and Atlantic service and designated by the British Admiralty as the Wolf class. [lower-alpha 2] Her design was similar to that of the preceding Drake-class sloops but larger and more heavily armed. Construction was contracted to civilian shipwright Thomas West, who had overseen construction of HMS Drake a year earlier.

As designed, Wolf's dimensions were in keeping with other vessels of her class with an overall length of 87 ft 6 in (26.7 m), a beam of 25 ft 2 in (7.7 m) and measuring 243+74⁄94 tons burthen. She had two masts, square-rigged and supported by a trysail mast aft of the main mast. [1] Two decks were fitted instead of one, reflecting the design of her predecessor, the 1731 HMS Wolf. [2] Constructed with eight pairs of gunports, she was initially supplied with fourteen four-pounder cannons in addition to twelve deck-mounted half-pounder swivel guns. [1]

Construction took seven months from the laying of the keel in July 1741 to launch in February 1742, at a building cost of £1,793.8.0d (at a contract price of £7.7.0d per burthen ton), plus an additional £1,653.12.2d for fitting out. [1] [lower-alpha 3]

Wolf was commissioned into the Navy at Deptford Dockyard in early February 1742 and launched at the end of that month under the command of Lieutenant Samuel Loftin. Internal fitout continued until April, after which Wolf was sailed to Svalbard as convoy protection for the English whaling fleet. [1]

Privateer hunter

At the end of the whaling season Wolf returned south to join the blockade of Spanish ports established as part of the War of Jenkins' Ear. On 11 December 1742 Wolf overhauled and captured a Spanish privateer, Nuestra Señora del Pilar y Animas. Two more privateers were captured in March 1743; the San Pedro y Animas on 5 March, and the Nuestra Señora de la Esclavitud on the 17th. [1]

Lieutenant Loftin left the vessel in late 1743 and was replaced by Commander Richard Haddock in January of the following year. Wolf's success in privateer hunting continued, with the capture of Spanish ships La Notre Dame de Boulogne on 30 June 1744, and La Palme on 30 July. In September Haddock was replaced by Commander (later Admiral) Augustus Keppel, who had recently returned to England after taking part in George Anson's voyage around the world. Keppel vacated his command three months later in favour of Lieutenant Thomas Stanhope, under whose authority Wolf was removed from Spanish patrol and reassigned to the English Channel. [1]

Capture and recapture

Stanhope was replaced in July 1745 by Commander John Hughes, with Wolf remaining at her previous post in the English Channel. On 29 October 1745 she was on patrol off the Channel Islands when she encountered and was defeated by a 32-gun French privateer. Commander Hughes and two other English sailors were killed in the battle, and three more were wounded. The outgunned Wolf was then surrendered to the French, who converted her for privateering and renamed her La Loup. [1]

Wolf's French service was cut short four months later, when on 1 March 1746 she was run down and retaken by the Royal Navy frigates Amazon and Grand Turk. The battered sloop was returned to Plymouth as a prize. After a year in port she was repurchased by Admiralty on 6 March 1747 and transferred to Plymouth Dockyard for repair. A five month refit was completed at a total cost of £1,887, slightly more than her original construction cost in 1742. [1]

Relaunch and wreck

The rebuilt Wolf was commissioned in July 1747 under Commander George Vachel, and relaunched in August for service against the French in what was now the War of the Austrian Succession. The following year was spent on patrol duties in the North Sea and off the Irish coast. On 31 December 1748 Wolf was caught in heavy seas and driven towards the Irish shore. Despite efforts by her crew she was wrecked in the bay below Dundrum Castle and sank with the loss of all on board. [1]

Notes

  1. ↑ the designed length was 87ft 6in, but on handing over she was measured as being 2ft longer. [1]
  2. ↑ Other Wolf-class vessels were HMS Otter and HMS Grampus [1]
  3. ↑ This equates to a net relative value of £483,000 in 2015 terms. [3]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Winfield 2007, p.300
  2. ↑ McLaughlan 2014, p. 169
  3. ↑ "Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1264 to Present". MeasuringWorth. 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2016.

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Active</i> (1758) Coventry-class Royal Navy frigate

HMS Active was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1758. She was one of the captors of the Spanish ship Hermione. After Hermione surrendered, her captors found that she carried a large cargo of gold and silver that would lead to the greatest single amount of prize money awarded to the crew of a British warship.

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.

HMS <i>Trial</i> (1744) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Trial or Tryall was a 10-gun two-masted Hind-class sloop of the Royal Navy, designed by Joseph Allin and built by him at Deptford Dockyard on the Thames River, England. She was launched on 17 July 1744. She and her sister ship, Jamaica, were the only sloops to be built in the Royal Dockyards between 1733 and 1748.

HMS <i>Saltash</i> (1741) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Saltash was an 8-gun two-masted sloop of the Royal Navy, built on speculation by Henry Bird at Deptford Wet Dock on the Thames River, England. She was purchased while building by the Navy Board at the end of August 1741 to replace the 1732-built sloop of the same name. The new sloop was launched on 3 September.

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.

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 Basilisk was a Serpent-class bomb vessel of the Royal Navy, one of ten such vessels commissioned in 1695 to support land assaults on continental ports. Initially commissioned as part of Admiral John Berkeley's fleet during the Nine Years' War, she also saw service as an exploratory vessel along the St Lawrence River, and later as part of the victorious British forces at the Battle of Cape Passaro.

HMS Infernal was an 8-gun bomb vessel of the Royal Navy, constructed in 1757 and in service until 1763. Designed by Thomas Slade, she was the prototype for six subsequent Infernal class bomb vessels which saw service in the Mediterranean and the West Indies during the Seven Years' War with France. In 1760 she was refitted as a sloop and returned to active service in the Caribbean.

HMS Endeavour was a 4-gun bomb vessel of the Royal Navy, purchased in 1694 but sold out of service the following year.

HMS Constant was an Archer–class gun-brig of the Royal Navy, launched in 1801 for service against the French during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She was variously stationed in English home waters, the Baltic, the Caribbean, and off the coast of Spain, and was responsible for the capture of at least seven enemy vessels during her fifteen years at sea. The Royal Navy sold Constant at Chatham Dockyard in 1816.

The Hunter class was a class of two sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1755 and 1756. Both were built by contract with commercial builders to a common design prepared by Thomas Slade, the Surveyor of the Navy.

HMS Weazel or Weazle was a 16-gun ship-sloop of the Royal Navy, in active service during the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. Launched in 1745, she remained in British service until 1779 and captured a total of 11 enemy vessels. She was also present, but not actively engaged, at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1747.

HMS <i>Stork</i> (1756) Sloop of the Royal Navy

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 <i>Alderney</i> (1757) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Alderney was a 10-gun Alderney-class sloop of the Royal Navy that saw active service during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. Launched in 1757, she was principally deployed in the North Sea to protect British fishing fleets and merchant trade. In this capacity she captured two American privateers, Hawk in 1779 and the 12-gun Lady Washington in 1780. She was removed from Navy service at the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War, and sold into private hands at Deptford Dockyard on 1 May 1783. She became the whaler Alderney that operated between 1784 and 1797, when the Spaniards captured her off Chile.

HMS <i>Happy</i> (1754) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Happy was an 8-gun sloop of war of the Royal Navy, launched in 1754 and in active service during the Seven Years' War.

HMS Coquette was launched in 1807 and spent her naval career patrolling in the Channel and escorting convoys. In 1813 she engaged an American privateer in a notable but inconclusive single-ship action. The Navy put Coquette in ordinary in 1814 and sold her in 1817. She became a whaler and made five whaling voyages to the British southern whale fishery before she was lost in 1835 on her sixth.

HMS <i>Sylph</i> (1795) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, in service 1795-1811

HMS Sylph was a 16-gun Albatross-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy designed by William Rule and launched in 1795 at Deptford Dockyard. Her namesake was the air spirit sylph. She commissioned in August 1795 under Commander John Chambers White, who would have her until the end of 1799. She was later commanded by Charles Dashwood.

HMS <i>Swallow</i> (1745) Royal Navy sloop

HMS Swallow was a 14-gun Merlin-class sloop of the Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1745, she initially served in home waters as a convoy escort and cruiser before sailing to join the East Indies Station in 1747. There she served in the squadron of Rear-Admiral Edward Boscawen, taking part in an aborted invasion of Mauritius and the Siege of Pondicherry. In 1755 Swallow returned home to join the Downs Station, as part of which she fought at the Raid on St Malo, Raid on Cherbourg, and Battle of Saint Cast in 1758. She was also present when the French fleet broke out of Brest prior to the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.