The ''Bonetta'' group was a batch of eight 200-ton

sloops A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular ...

of wooden construction built for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

during 1732. They followed on two previous sloops - the ''Grampus'' and the larger ''Wolf'' - built a year earlier. Seven were ordered on 4 May 1732 to a common specification prepared by Jacob Acworth, the

Surveyor of the Navy The Surveyor of the Navy also known as Department of the Surveyor of the Navy and originally known as Surveyor and Rigger of the Navy was a former principal commissioner and member of both the Navy Board from the inauguration of that body in 1 ...

. An additional vessel – ''Trial'' (which had been ordered on 16 November 1731, but suspended on 7 January 1732) – was re-ordered on 6 July to be built to the same specification. The actual individual design was left up to the Master Shipwright in each Royal Dockyard at which they were built (except for ''Hound'' and ''Trial'', which were built by Deptford's Master Shipwright – Richard Stacey – but were to a design by Jacob Acworth). All the draughts were approved by the Navy Board on 28 June 1732. Although fitted with snow rigs and initially armed with eight 3-pounder guns (except ''Shark'' which was rigged as a

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fro ...

and fitted with eight 4-pounders), this group was built with seven pairs of gunports on the upper deck (each port flanked by two pairs of row-ports).

Vessels

The following is a list of the dimensions and tonnages of the individual vessels:

References

* *McLaughlan, Ian. ''The Sloop of War 1650–1763''. Seaforth Publishing, 2014. . *Winfield, Rif. ''British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates''. Seaforth Publishing, 2007. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonetta group sloop Sloop classes