Artois-class frigate

The Artois class were a series of nine frigates built to a 1793 design by Sir John Henslow, which served in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Class overview
Name:	Artois class
Operators:	Royal Navy  Royal Netherlands Navy
Preceded by:	Pallas class
Succeeded by:	Alcmene class
Completed:	9
Lost:	5
General characteristics
Type:	Frigate
Tons burthen:	983 ​^70⁄94 bm (as designed)
Length:	146 ft 0 in (44.5 m) (gundeck) 121 ft 7.125 in (37.1 m) (keel)
Beam:	39 ft 0 in (11.9 m)
Depth of hold:	13 ft 9 in (4.19 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	270 (altered later to 315)
Armament:	Upper Deck: 28 x 18-pounder guns Quarter Deck: 2 x 9-pounder guns 12 x 32-pounder carronades Forecastle: 2 x 9-pounder guns 2 x 32-pounder carronades

Seven of these ships were built by contract with commercial builders, while the remaining pair (Tamar and Clyde) were dockyard-built - the latter built using "fir" (pitch pine) instead of the normal oak.

They were armed with a main battery of 28 eighteen-pounder cannon on their upper deck, the main gun deck of a frigate. Besides this battery, they also carried two 9-pounders together with twelve 32-pounder carronades on the quarter deck, and another two 9-pounders together with two 32-pounder carronades on the forecastle.

Ships in class

• HMS Artois
  • Builder: John & William Wells, Rotherhithe
  • Ordered: 28 March 1793
  • Laid down: March 1793
  • Launched: 3 January 1794
  • Completed: 3 March 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Wrecked on the Ballieu rocks off Brittany on 31 July 1797
• HMS Diana
  • Builder: Randall & Co, Rotherhithe
  • Ordered: 28 March 1793
  • Laid down: March 1793
  • Launched: 3 March 1794
  • Completed: 6 June 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Sold to new Dutch Navy on 7 March 1815;
    burnt in fire at Willemsoord, Den Helder on 16 January 1839.
• HMS Apollo
  • Builder: Perry & Hankey, Blackwall
  • Ordered: 28 March 1793
  • Laid down: March 1793
  • Launched: 18 March 1794
  • Completed: 23 September 1794 at Woolwich Dockyard
  • Fate: Wrecked on the Haak sands off the Dutch coast on 7 January 1799
• HMS Diamond
  • Builder: William Barnard, Deptford
  • Ordered: 28 March 1793
  • Laid down: April 1793
  • Launched: 17 March 1794
  • Completed: 6 June 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Broken up at Sheerness Dockyard in June 1812
• HMS Jason
  • Builder: John Dudman, Deptford
  • Ordered: 1 April 1793
  • Laid down: April 1793
  • Launched: 3 April 1794
  • Completed: 25 July 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Wrecked on rocks off Brittany on 13 October 1798
• HMS Seahorse
  • Builder: Marmaduke Stalkart, Rotherhithe
  • Ordered: 14 February 1793
  • Laid down: March 1793
  • Launched: 11 June 1794
  • Completed: 16 September 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Broken up at Plymouth Dockyard in July 1819
• HMS Tamar
  • Builder: Chatham Royal Dockyard
  • Ordered: 4 February 1795
  • Laid down: June 1795
  • Launched: 26 March 1796
  • Completed: 21 June 1796
  • Fate: Broken up in January 1810 at Chatham Dockyard.
• HMS Clyde
  • Builder: Chatham Royal Dockyard
  • Ordered: 4 February 1795
  • Laid down: June 1795
  • Launched: 26 March 1796
  • Completed: 21 June 1796
  • Fate: Sold to be broken up August 1814.
• HMS Ethalion
  • Builder: Joseph Graham, Harwich
  • Ordered: 30 April 1795
  • Laid down: October 1795
  • Launched: 14 March 1797
  • Completed: 11 July 1797 at Chatham Dockyard
  • Fate: Wrecked on the Penmarcks on 25 December 1799

References

• Robert Gardiner, The Heavy Frigate, Conway Maritime Press, London 1994.
• Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. 2nd edition, Seaforth Publishing, 2008. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.