Thirty-nine vessels of the Royal Navy and its predecessors have borne the name Swallow, as has one dockyard craft, one naval vessel of the British East India Company, and at least two revenue cutters, all after the bird, the Swallow:
The 1745 Establishment was the third and final formal establishment of dimensions for ships to be built for the Royal Navy. It completely superseded the previous 1719 Establishment, which had subsequently been modified in 1733 and again in 1741. Although partially intended to correct the problems of the ships built to the earlier Establishments, the ships of the 1745 Establishment proved just as unsatisfactory, and important changes in the make-up of the Admiralty and Navy Boards finally led to the end of the establishment era by around 1751.
The Cormorant class were built as a class of 16-gun ship sloops for the Royal Navy, although they were re-rated as 18-gun ships soon after completion.
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 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.
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; they were to a common design prepared by Jacob Allin, the Surveyor of the Navy. For the latter two vessels, the design was modified by the addition of 6 inches to their depth in hold.
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 constituted a further increase in size from the 200 burthen tons which had been the normal size from 1728 to 1739; Baltimore was built to a design by Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, one of the members of the Admiralty Board at that time; it is uncertain whether the other two ships were built to the same design, or to the same overall dimensions but to a design prepared by Jacob Allin, the Surveyor of the Navy.
The Bonetta group was a batch of eight 200-ton sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy during 1732. They followed on two sloops built a year earlier. Seven were ordered on 4 May 1732 to a common specification prepared by Jacob Acworth, the Surveyor of the Navy. An additional vessel – Trial – was re-ordered on 6 July to be built to the same specification. The actual individual design was left up to the Master Shipwright in each Royal Dockyard at which they were built. All the draughts were approved by the Navy Board on 28 June 1732.
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.
HMS Fox was a 20-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was constructed at Rotherhithe by John Buxton senior, and launched in 1740. Fox was part of the 1733 Establishment built in response to the upcoming War of the Austrian Succession and spent the majority of her career patrolling for privateers and smaller hostile craft, and protecting convoys. She was active during the Jacobite rising of 1745, contributing troops at the Battle of Prestonpans and protecting the advancing army and supplies of John Cope, before succumbing to a storm off Dunbar on 14 November 1745.
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.
Sir Jacob Ackworth or Acworth (1668–1749) was an English shipwright and ship designer employed by the Royal Navy. As a designer he adopted Newtonian theories to create lighter and faster ships but this approach marginalised him with the very traditional dockyards and he spent his final years on the Navy Board as an advisor.
Joseph Allin was an 18th-century shipbuilder to the Royal Navy. His works merge with those of his namesake son who was also a Master Shipwright at Portsmouth Dockyard and later Surveyor to the Navy at which point he became Sir Joseph Allin.
Royal Navy