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
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 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.
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
.
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
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