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The ''Merlin'' class was a class of twenty-one sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1743 and 1746. They were all built by contract with commercial builders to a common design prepared by Jacob Acworth, the Surveyor of the Navy. The first two - ''Swallow'' and ''Merlin'' - were ordered on 7 July 1743 to be built to replace two ex-Spanish vessels (the ''Galgo'' and ''Peregrine's Prize'', both captured in 1742, and put into service by the British). Although initially armed with ten 6-pounder guns, this class was built with seven pairs of gunports on the upper deck, enabling them to be re-armed with fourteen 6-pounders later in their careers. Two more vessels to the same design - ''Speedwell'' and ''Falcon'' - were ordered on 30 March 1744; another two were ordered five days later - ''Hazard'' and ''Lizard''; four more followed on 23 May - ''Hinchingbrooke'', ''Tavistock'', ''Hound'' and ''Hornet''; and three others were ordered later that year - ''Raven'' on 27 August, ''Swan'' on 6 October and ''Badger'' on 10 October. On 5 April 1745 five more were ordered - a second ''Falcon'' (named to replace the first, captured in the same year), ''Scorpion'', a second ''Swallow'' (similarly to replace the first, wrecked in 1744), ''Kingfisher'' and ''Dispatch'' - and a single vessel - ''Viper'' was ordered on 11 April. A final pair - ''Grampus'' and ''Saltash'' - were ordered on 9 January 1746. == Vessels == * - wrecked 1744. * - sold 1748. * - sold 1750. * - captured by French 1745, retaken 1746 and renamed ''Fortune'', sold 1770. * - sold 1749. * - wrecked 1748. * - captured by French 1746. * - renamed ''Albany'' in 1747, sold 1763. * - sold 1773. * - sold 1770. * - sold 1763. * - sold 1763. * - wrecked 1762. * - wrecked 1759. * - wrecked 1762. * - sold 1769. * - sold 1763. * - sold 1773. * - renamed ''Lightning'' and converted to a fireship in 1755, sold 1762. * - converted to a fireship in 1762, renamed ''Strombolo'' in 1771, sold 1780. * - sold 1773. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Merlin-class sloop」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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