Pictured: a built model of this ship — not the historical vessel.

Speedwell (1752 sloop)

Type

Sloop

Period

18th Century

Nation

Great Britain

Overview: HMS Speedwell was an 8-gun, two-masted, ketch-rigged sloop of the Cruizer class, built at Chatham Dockyard for anti-privateer and anti-smuggling patrol work rather than fleet action. She is one of the best-documented small Royal Navy sailing vessels of the mid-18th century thanks to surviving Admiralty draughts and a modern modeler's monograph devoted entirely to her. Specifications: She measured about 75'7" on the gundeck and 62'3" on the keel, with a beam of roughly 20'7.5" and a depth in hold of about 9'4", for a burthen around 140 tons, and this is corroborated by independent naval-history data giving her Length of Gundeck 75' 7", Length of Keel 62' 3", Breadth 20' 7 ½", Depth in Hold 9' 4", Burthen 140 79⁄94 Tons BM. Armament was 8 three-pounder guns plus 10 half-pound swivel guns, with a design complement around 50 men, later reduced to 40 when reclassified as a fireship, matching recorded data of a Design Complement of 50 at launch, reduced to 40 as a fireship. Service History: Construction data confirms she Began building at Chatham Dockyard on 11.2.1752 and Completed building on 21.10.1752, at a cost of over £2,285. She went on to serve off the Isle of Wight, cross to North America in 1757, take part in the Louisbourg Expedition, and support the 1758 raids on the French coast, before eventually being laid up, repeatedly surveyed and repaired through the 1760s-70s, and finally converted into the fireship Spitfire in 1779 and sold in 1780. Notable Facts: A pair of Admiralty draughts for Speedwell survive at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, showing her body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth, with alterations to be conformed to by Chatham Dockyard, and a related sister-plan covers her near-sister ship 'Cruiser' (1752) and 'Speedwell' (1752), both 8-gun early two-masted Sloops, as built at Deptford and Chatham respectively. The museum also holds a contemporary Georgian-era full hull model fitting her class's dimensions, described as a contemporary full hull model of a British 12-gun sloop-of-war (circa 1752), built in 'bread and butter' fashion... the dimensions fit the three ketches of the 'Speedwell' class, the others being 'Fly' and 'Happy'. For modelers, Greg Herbert and David Antscherl's two-volume monograph and the Syren Ship Model Company's large 3/8"-scale plank-on-frame kit (built from Alaskan Yellow Cedar with Boxwood accents, described on the maker's own site as a true plank on frame model built to 3/8" scale... 32" long and fully rigged it will be even larger at around 51" long and 40" high) make her one of the most thoroughly reconstructible small Royal Navy sloops of her era. Image note: No confirmed open-license historical image (draught or period painting) could be located — the National Maritime Museum's Speedwell/Cruizer draughts and ship model pages state that reuse requires contacting RMG Images, so they were not used here. The image on file instead shows a modern Admiralty-style full-hull scholarly reproduction model by American Marine Models (Philip S. Reed), which the maker describes as depicting her as a support or small transport vessel most likely used to carry important dispatches or high ranking people given its fine decorations.