HMS Actaeon (1757)
Actaeon was built to the same design as HMS Carysfort, (pictured)
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain
|
|
| Name: | HMS Actaeon |
| Ordered: | 5 May 1757 |
| Builder: | Chatham Dockyard |
| Laid down: | 26 May 1757 |
| Launched: | 30 September 1757 |
| Completed: | 9 November 1757 |
| Commissioned: | September 1757 |
| Fate: | Sold to be taken to pieces at Deptford 9 September 1766 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate |
| Tons burthen: | 584 81⁄94 bm |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 33 ft 7.5 in (10.2 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement: | 200 |
| Armament: |
|
HMS Actaeon was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.
Actaeon was designed by Sir Thomas Slade, a naval architect and newly appointed Surveyor of the Navy. Slade's plans specified construction of a 28-gun sixth-rate, one of 19 vessels forming part of the Coventry-class of frigates. As with others in her class she was loosely modelled on the design and dimensions of HMS Tartar, launched in 1756 and responsible for capturing five French privateers in her first twelve months at sea. The vessel was part of a second batch in the Coventry-class, with design modifications including a square stern and the decision to build the hull from fir rather than oak. A fir-built vessel would be swifter and cheaper to build, and Slade believed it would also be faster in light winds. The disadvantages of fir included its propensity to rot faster than oak, and a belief that it was more likely to splinter and fly apart when impacted by cannon fire.
Orders from Admiralty to build the Coventry-class vessels were made after the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, and at a time in which the Royal Dockyards were fully engaged in constructing or fitting-out the Navy's ships of the line. Consequently, and despite some Navy Board misgivings, contracts for Coventry-class vessels were intended to be issued to private shipyards, with an emphasis on rapid completion of the task. However only one offer was received, from shipwright Thomas Stanton of Rotherhithe, and Admiralty rejected his fee of £9.0 per ton burthen as being too high for a fir-built ship. Instead, Admiralty directed the Navy Board to make room for building Actaeon at Chatham Royal Dockyard, with the work ultimately assigned to Chatham's master shipwright John Lock.
...
Wikipedia