HMS Weazel (1745)
| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain
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| Name: | HMS Weazel |
| Builder: | James Taylor & John Randall, Rotherhithe |
| Launched: | 22 May 1745 at Rotherhithe |
| Completed: | 24 June 1745 at Deptford Dockyard |
| Acquired: | 22 April 1745 |
| Commissioned: | May 1745 |
| In service: |
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| Out of service: | 1779 |
| Honours and awards: |
Second Battle of Cape Finisterre (1747) |
| Captured: | 13 January 1779 by French frigate Boudeuse |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 16-gun ship-sloop |
| Tons burthen: | 307 65⁄94 bm |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 27 ft 6.25 in (8.4 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 0 in (3.7 m) |
| Sail plan: | Ship rig |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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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.
Weazel was captured by the French in 1779, and was later sold into private hands.
The vessel that would become Weazel was built by shipwrights James Taylor and John Randall of Rotherhithe, and was initially intended to be a private merchant craft. The Royal Navy purchased the half-built vessel on 22 April 1745 and hired Taylor and Randall to complete her for naval service. The fee for the vessel and her completion was £2,387, or the equivalent of £361,000 in 2015 terms.
Once ownership of the vessel had passed into Navy hands, Randall and Taylor were directed to complete her in accordance with an experimental design, as the Royal Navy's first three-masted ship rigged sloop. The quarterdeck was lengthened from the original plans in order to incorporate a mizzen mast, with the intention that the additional sails would enhance speed and maneuverability compared to the traditional two-masted snow rig sloop. This proved sufficiently successful that from 1756 ship rigging became the standard for all subsequent 14-gun and 16-gun sloops in Royal Navy hands.
As built, Weazel was 94 ft 6.75 in (28.8 m) long with a 76 ft 4.5 in (23.3 m) keel, a beam of 27 ft 6.25 in (8.3884 m), and a hold depth of 12 ft 0 in (3.7 m). She was constructed with eighteen broadside gunports and two bow chasers, although in practice she carried only sixteen cannons with the remaining ports left unused. Despite this, at the time of her launch she was the most heavily armed sloop in the Navy. Her designated complement was 110 officers and ratings from 1745 to 1749, rising to 125 thereafter.
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Wikipedia