HMS Sphinx (1775)

Type

Frigate

Period

18th Century

Nation

Great Britain

Overview: HMS Sphinx was a 20-gun sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy, lead ship of the Sphinx-class, a design that modelers often see labeled loosely as a "frigate" even though the Admiralty classed post ships like Sphinx as sixth-rates rather than true frigates. She is well documented thanks to a rare surviving pair of Navy Board-style perspective paintings of her hull model. Specifications: The Sphinx-class was designed in 1773 by Surveyor of the Navy Sir John Williams as a refinement of earlier 1750s post-ship classes, with finer lines. As built she measured about 108 ft on the gundeck and 89 ft 7 in on the keel, with a 30 ft 1 in beam, 9 ft 8 in depth of hold, and roughly 431 tons burthen, carrying 20 × 9-pounder guns on her upper deck (with 12-pounder carronades added to quarterdeck and forecastle from 1794 onward in sister ships), and a complement of about 140. Service History: Sphinx was built at Portsmouth Dockyard, ordered in November 1773 and completed in October 1775, and went on to serve in the American Revolutionary War, sailing for North America in 1776 and being present off Charleston. She was captured by the French frigate Amphitrite off Martinique in September 1779 but was recaptured by HMS Proserpine that November. She later served on the Cape of Good Hope station in the 1790s, took part in operations against a Dutch squadron at Simon's Bay in 1796, and helped destroy a French settlement at Foul Point, Madagascar, that same year, before being broken up at Portsmouth in 1811. Notable Facts: In 1773 King George III commissioned marine painter Joseph Marshall to produce paired bow and stern perspective paintings, based on Navy Board plans, of a hull model representing each class in the naval establishment; Sphinx was one of the ten ships chosen, and both her bow and stern panels survive in the Science Museum Group Collection (originally a gift of Queen Victoria). The Sphinx-class post ship design is a popular modeling subject today, most notably through Vanguard Models' 1:64 scale kit depicting Sphinx "as built" in 1775.