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.
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.
PROTOTYPE
RoebuckBuilder: Chatham DockyardOrdered: 30 November 1769Laid down: October 1770Launched: 24 April 1774Completed: 4 August 1775Fate: Broken up at Sheerness in July 1811.WARTIME BATCH
RomulusBuilder: Henry Adams, Bucklers HardOrdered: 14 May 1776Laid down: July 1776Launched: 17 December 1777Completed: 7 April 1778 at Portsmouth DockyardFate: Captured by a French squadron consisting of a ship of the line, two frigates and a cutter, off the Chesapeake 19 February 1781.ActaeonBuilder: Randall & Co, RotherhitheOrdered: 3 July 1776Laid down: July 1776Launched: 29 January 1778Completed: 17 April 1778 at Deptford DockyardFate: Sold to be broken up 30 April 1802JanusBuilder: Robert Batson, LimehouseOrdered: 24 July 1776Laid down: 9 August 1776Launched: 14 May 1778Completed: 11 August 1778 at Deptford DockyardFate: Renamed Dromedary 1788 as storeship. Wrecked near Trinidad in August 1800 but with no loss of life.Charon (i)Builder: John Barnard, HarwichOrdered: 9 October 1776Laid down: January 1777Launched: 8 October 1778Completed: 23 January 1779 at Sheerness DockyardFate: She was trapped at the Yorktown so her stores, men and guns were taken ashore; on 10 October 1781 heated shot from a French battery set her on fire.DolphinBuilder: Chatham DockyardOrdered: 8 January 1777Laid down: 1 May 1777Launched: 10 March 1781Completed: 11 May 1781Fate: Broken up in July 1817UlyssesBuilder: John Fisher, LiverpoolOrdered: 16 April 1777Laid down: 28 June 1777Launched: 14 July 1779Completed: 2 January 1780 at Plymouth DockyardFate: Sold to be broken up 11 January 1816EndymionBuilder: Edward Greaves, LimehouseOrdered: 2 February 1778Laid down: 18 March 1778Launched: 28 August 1779Completed: 5 November 1779 at Woolwich DockyardFate: Wrecked on an uncharted rock off Turks Island on 20 August 1790 with the loss of one man.Serapis (i)Builder: Randall & Co, RotherhitheOrdered: 11 February 1778Laid down: 3 March 1778Launched: 4 March 1779Completed: 6 May 1779 at Deptford DockyardFate: Taken by American Bonhomme Richard, assisted by other vessels, and transferred to the French who employed her as a privateer; wrecked 1781 off Madagascar.AssuranceBuilder: Randall & Co, RotherhitheOrdered: 20 May 1778Laid down: 11 June 1778Launched: 20 April 1780Completed: 15 July 1780 at Deptford DockyardFate: Broken up in March 1815ArgoBuilder: John Baker & Co, Howden Pans, NewcastleOrdered: 26 February 1779Laid down: 18 August 1779Launched: 8 June 1781Completed: 15 October 1781 at Chatham DockyardFate: Sold to be broken up 11 January 1816.
DiomedeBuilder: James Martin Hilhouse, BristolOrdered: 14 August 1779Laid down: March 1780Launched: 18 October 1781Completed: 14 March 1782 at BristolFate: Wrecked off Trincomalee, 2 August 1795.MediatorBuilder: Thomas Raymond, Northam, SouthamptonOrdered: 3 December 1779Laid down: July 1780.Launched: 30 March 1782Completed: 15 June 1782 at Portsmouth DockyardFate: Renamed Camel 1788 as storeship. Broken up in December 1810.ResistanceBuilder: Edward Greaves, LimehouseOrdered: 29 March 1780Laid down: April 1781Launched: 11 July 1782Completed: 17 September 1782 at Deptford DockyardFate: Blew up (believed struck by lightning) off Sumatra 24 July 1798; four survivors.GladiatorBuilder: Henry Adams, Bucklers HardOrdered: 13 July 1780Laid down: April 1781Launched: 20 January 1783Completed: February 1783 at Portsmouth DockyardFate: Broken up in August 1817Serapis (ii)Builder: James Martin Hillhouse, BristolOrdered: 13 July 1780Laid down: May 1781Launched: 7 November 1782Completed: December 1782 at BristolFate: Sold to be broken up at Jamaica on 17 July 1826ExperimentBuilder: Robert Fabian, East Cowes, Isle of WightOrdered: 13 July 1780Laid down: June 1781Launched: 27 November 1784Completed: 11 January 1785 at Portsmouth DockyardFate: Sold to be broken up 8 September 1836GuardianBuilder: Robert Batson, LimehouseOrdered: 11 August 1780Laid down: December 1780Launched: 23 March 1784Completed: 20 May 1784 at Deptford DockyardFate: 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.RegulusBuilder: Thomas Raymond, Northam, SouthamptonOrdered: 20 October 1780Laid down: June 1781Launched: 10 February 1785Completed: 10 March 1785 at Portsmouth DockyardFate: Broken up in March 1816Charon (ii)Builder: James Martin Hillhouse, BristolOrdered: 19 September 1781Laid down: May 1782Launched: 17 May 1783Completed: 5 February 1784 at Plymouth DockyardFate: Broken up in December 1805
