Pallas-class frigate (1791)

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Pallas (1793), Stag (1793), Unicorn (1734) RMG J6087.jpg
Pallas-class frigate
Class overview
NamePallas class
OperatorsNaval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg  Royal Navy
Preceded by Perseverance class
Succeeded by Artois class
Completed3
Lost2
General characteristics
Type Frigate
Tons burthen776 7794 bm (as designed)
Length
  • 135 ft 0 in (41.1 m) (gundeck)
  • 112 ft 8+14 in (34.3 m) (keel)
Beam36 ft 0 in (11.0 m)
Depth of hold12 ft 6 in (3.81 m)
Sail plan Full-rigged ship
Complement257 (altered in 1796 to 254)
Armament
  • Upper deck: 26 × 18-pounder guns
  • Qd: 4 × 6-pounder guns + 4 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Fc:2 × 6-pounder bow chasers + 2 × 32-pounder carronades

The Pallas-class frigates were a series of three frigates built to a 1791 design by John Henslow, which served in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Contents

The trio were all dockyard-built in order to use spare shipbuilding capacity. The orders were originally assigned in December 1790 to the Royal Dockyards at Plymouth and Portsmouth, but in February 1791 the orders were transferred to Chatham and Woolwich Dockyards respectively. They were the first and only 32-gun Royal Navy frigates designed to be armed with the eighteen-pounder cannon on their upper deck, the main gun deck of a frigate.

Ships in class

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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.