Bonetta-class sloop

The Bonetta class was a class of three sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1755 and 1756. All three were built by contract with commercial builders to a common design prepared by Thomas Slade, the Surveyor of the Navy.

Class overview
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Cruizer (1752) class
Built	1755-1756
In commission	1756-1778
Completed	3
Lost	1
General characteristics (common design)
Type	Sloop-of-war
Tons burthen	220 43⁄94 bm
Length	85 ft 10 in (26.2 m) (gundeck) 70 ft 0 in (21.3 m) (keel)
Beam	24 ft 4 in (7.4 m)
Depth of hold	10 ft 10 in (3.30 m) (vessels without platform in hold)
Sail plan	Snow rig
Complement	100
Armament	10 × 6-pounder (short) guns; also 12 x ½-pounder swivel guns

All three were ordered on 9 July 1755, assigned names on 29 July 1755, and were built as two-masted snow-rigged vessels.

Vessels

Name	Ordered	Builder	Launched	Notes
Bonetta	9 July 1755	Henry Bird, Globe Stairs, Rotherhithe	4 February 1756	Sold 1 November 1776 at Woolwich.
Merlin	9 July 1755	John Quallett, Rotherhithe	20 March 1756	Captured 23 August 1778 by the French in the Mediterranean. (Recaptured 26 August 1780 by British privateer Fame and burnt).
Spy	9 July 1755	Robert Inwood, Rotherhithe	3 February 1756	Sold 3 September 1773 at Sheerness.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• McLaughlan, Ian. The Sloop of War 1650-1763. Seaforth Publishing, 2014. ISBN 978-1-84832-187-8.
• Winfield, Rif. British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.