The Roebuck-class ship was a class of twenty 44-gun sailing two-decker warships of the Royal Navy. The class carried two complete decks of guns, a lower battery of 18-pounders and an upper battery of 9-pounders. This battery enabled the vessel to deliver a broadside of 285 pounds. Most were constructed for service during the American Revolutionary War but continued to serve thereafter. By 1793 five were still on the active list. Ten were hospital ships, troopships or storeships. As troopships or storeships they had the guns on their lower deck removed. Many of the vessels in the class survived to take part in the Napoleonic Wars. In all, maritime incidents claimed five ships in the class and war claimed three.

Classification

The Royal Navy classed the Roebuck class as fifth rates like frigates but did not classify them as frigates. Although sea officers sometimes casually described them and other small two-deckers as frigates, the Admiralty officially never referred to them as frigates. By 1750, the Admiralty strictly defined frigates as ships of 28 guns or more, carrying all their main battery (24, 26 or even 28 guns) on the upper deck, with no guns or openings on the lower deck (which could thus be at sea level or even lower). A frigate might carry a few smaller guns - 3-pounders or 6-pounders, later 9-pounders - on their quarterdeck and (perhaps) on the forecastle. The Roebuck-class ships were two-deckers with complete batteries on both decks, and hence not frigates.

Design and construction

The Admiralty assigned the contract for Roebuck to Chatham Dockyard on 30 November 1769. Some seven years after the design was first produced, the Admiralty re-used it for a second batch of nineteen ships. The Admiralty ordered them to meet the particular requirements of the American War of Independence for vessels suitable for coastal warfare in the shallow seas off North America (where deeper two-deckers could not sail). The first five vessels of the class, and the later Guardian, had two rows of stern lights (windows), like larger two-deckers, though actually there was just the single level of cabin behind. Most, if not all, of the other ships of the class - from Dolphin onwards - had a 'single level' frigate-type stern.

Ships in class

PROTOTYPE

  • Roebuck Builder: Chatham Dockyard Ordered: 30 November 1769 Laid down: October 1770 Launched: 24 April 1774 Completed: 4 August 1775 Fate: Broken up at Sheerness in July 1811.

WARTIME BATCH

  • Romulus Builder: Henry Adams, Bucklers Hard Ordered: 14 May 1776 Laid down: July 1776 Launched: 17 December 1777 Completed: 7 April 1778 at Portsmouth Dockyard Fate: Captured by a French squadron consisting of a ship of the line, two frigates and a cutter, off the Chesapeake 19 February 1781.
  • Actaeon Builder: Randall & Co, Rotherhithe Ordered: 3 July 1776 Laid down: July 1776 Launched: 29 January 1778 Completed: 17 April 1778 at Deptford Dockyard Fate: Sold to be broken up 30 April 1802
  • Janus Builder: Robert Batson, Limehouse Ordered: 24 July 1776 Laid down: 9 August 1776 Launched: 14 May 1778 Completed: 11 August 1778 at Deptford Dockyard Fate: Renamed Dromedary 1788 as storeship. Wrecked near Trinidad in August 1800 but with no loss of life.
  • Charon (i) Builder: John Barnard, Harwich Ordered: 9 October 1776 Laid down: January 1777 Launched: 8 October 1778 Completed: 23 January 1779 at Sheerness Dockyard Fate: She was trapped at the Siege of Yorktown so her stores, men and guns were taken ashore; on 10 October 1781 heated shot from a French battery set her on fire.
  • Dolphin Builder: Chatham Dockyard Ordered: 8 January 1777 Laid down: 1 May 1777 Launched: 10 March 1781 Completed: 11 May 1781 Fate: Broken up in July 1817
  • Ulysses Builder: John Fisher, Liverpool Ordered: 16 April 1777 Laid down: 28 June 1777 Launched: 14 July 1779 Completed: 2 January 1780 at Plymouth Dockyard Fate: Sold to be broken up 11 January 1816
  • Endymion Builder: Edward Greaves, Limehouse Ordered: 2 February 1778 Laid down: 18 March 1778 Launched: 28 August 1779 Completed: 5 November 1779 at Woolwich Dockyard Fate: Wrecked on an uncharted rock off Turks Island on 20 August 1790 with the loss of one man.
Battle between Continental Ship USS Bonhomme Richard (1765)Bonhomme Richardand HMSSerapis, 23 September 1779 (Thomas Mitchell, 1780)
  • Serapis (i) Builder: Randall & Co, Rotherhithe Ordered: 11 February 1778 Laid down: 3 March 1778 Launched: 4 March 1779 Completed: 6 May 1779 at Deptford Dockyard Fate: Taken by American Bonhomme Richard, assisted by other vessels, and transferred to the French who employed her as a privateer; wrecked 1781 off Madagascar.
  • Assurance Builder: Randall & Co, Rotherhithe Ordered: 20 May 1778 Laid down: 11 June 1778 Launched: 20 April 1780 Completed: 15 July 1780 at Deptford Dockyard Fate: Broken up in March 1815
  • Argo Builder: John Baker & Co, Howden Pans, Newcastle Ordered: 26 February 1779 Laid down: 18 August 1779 Launched: 8 June 1781 Completed: 15 October 1781 at Chatham Dockyard Fate: Sold to be broken up 11 January 1816
Cybèle and Prudente fighting Centurion and Diomede
  • Diomede Builder: James Martin Hilhouse, Bristol Ordered: 14 August 1779 Laid down: March 1780 Launched: 18 October 1781 Completed: 14 March 1782 at Bristol Fate: Wrecked off Trincomalee, 2 August 1795.
  • Mediator Builder: Thomas Raymond, Northam, Southampton Ordered: 3 December 1779 Laid down: July 1780. Launched: 30 March 1782 Completed: 15 June 1782 at Portsmouth Dockyard Fate: Renamed Camel 1788 as storeship. Broken up in December 1810.
  • Resistance Builder: Edward Greaves, Limehouse Ordered: 29 March 1780 Laid down: April 1781 Launched: 11 July 1782 Completed: 17 September 1782 at Deptford Dockyard Fate: Blew up (believed struck by lightning) off Sumatra 24 July 1798; four survivors.
  • Gladiator Builder: Henry Adams, Bucklers Hard Ordered: 13 July 1780 Laid down: April 1781 Launched: 20 January 1783 Completed: February 1783 at Portsmouth Dockyard Fate: Broken up in August 1817
  • Serapis (ii) Builder: James Martin Hillhouse, Bristol Ordered: 13 July 1780 Laid down: May 1781 Launched: 7 November 1782 Completed: December 1782 at Bristol Fate: Sold to be broken up at Jamaica on 17 July 1826
  • Experiment Builder: Robert Fabian, East Cowes, Isle of Wight Ordered: 13 July 1780 Laid down: June 1781 Launched: 27 November 1784 Completed: 11 January 1785 at Portsmouth Dockyard Fate: Sold to be broken up 8 September 1836
Guardian hitting an iceberg in 1789
  • Guardian Builder: Robert Batson, Limehouse Ordered: 11 August 1780 Laid down: December 1780 Launched: 23 March 1784 Completed: 20 May 1784 at Deptford Dockyard Fate: Collided with iceberg 24 December 1789 and of the 40 men and passengers who set out in boats, 10 survived; Guardian, with the remaining 61 crew, convicts and passengers, arrived at Cape Town in sinking condition 21 February 1790 and beached on 12 April during a gale; remains sold to be broken up 8 February 1791.
  • Regulus Builder: Thomas Raymond, Northam, Southampton Ordered: 20 October 1780 Laid down: June 1781 Launched: 10 February 1785 Completed: 10 March 1785 at Portsmouth Dockyard Fate: Broken up in March 1816
  • Charon (ii) Builder: James Martin Hillhouse, Bristol Ordered: 19 September 1781 Laid down: May 1782 Launched: 17 May 1783 Completed: 5 February 1784 at Plymouth Dockyard Fate: Broken up in December 1805

Citations

  • Robert Gardiner: Ships of the Royal Navy: the 44-gun two-decker, in: Robert Gardiner (Hrsg.): Nelson against Napoleon. From the Nile to Copenhagen, 1798-1801. Chatham 1997, S. 85-87.
  • Hepper, David J. (1994). . Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3. OCLC .
  • Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1844157006.