Venus-class frigate

Class overview
Built:	1756–1758
In commission:	1758–1809
Completed:	3
General characteristics
Tons burthen:	718 ​18⁄94 bm (as designed)
Length:	128 ft 4 in (39 m) (gundeck) 106 ft 2.625 in (32.37548 m) (keel)
Beam:	35 ft 8 in (11 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft 4 in (4 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	240
Armament:	36 guns comprising: Upperdeck: 26 × 12-pounder guns Quarterdeck: 8 × 6-pounder guns Forecastle: 2 × 6-pounder guns

The Venus-class frigates were three 36-gun sailing frigates of the fifth rate produced for the Royal Navy. They were designed in 1756 by Sir Thomas Slade, and were enlarged from his design for the 32-gun Southampton-class frigates, which had been approved four months earlier.

The 36-gun frigates, of which this was to be the only British design in the era of the 12-pounder frigate, carried the same battery of twenty-six 12-pounders as the 32-gun predecessors; the only difference lay in the secondary armament on the quarter deck, which was here doubled to eight 6-pounders.

Slade's 36-gun design was approved on 13 July 1756, on which date two ships were approved to be built by contract to these plans. A third ship was ordered about two weeks later, to be built in a royal dockyard.

Ships in class

• Pallas
  • Ordered: 13 July 1756
  • Built by: William Wells & Company, Deptford.
  • Keel laid: July 1756
  • Launched: 30 August 1757
  • Completed: 8 October 1757 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Run ashore due to leaks and burnt on Sao Jorge (Azores) on 12 February 1783.
• Venus
  • Ordered: 13 July 1756
  • Built by: John Okill, Liverpool.
  • Keel laid: 16 August 1756
  • Launched: 11 March 1758
  • Completed: 30 June 1758 at the builder's shipyard.
  • Fate: Reduced to 32 guns in 1792. Renamed Heroine on 14 July 1807. Paid off 1809 and laid up. Sold to break up at Deptford Dockyard on 22 September 1828.
• Brilliant
  • Ordered: 29 July 1756
  • Built by: Plymouth Dockyard.
  • Keel laid: 28 August 1756
  • Launched: 27 October 1757
  • Completed: 20 November 1757.
  • Fate: Sold at Deptford Dockyard on 1 November 1776.

References

• Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates, Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. ISBN 0-85177-601-9.
• David Lyon, The Sailing Navy List, Conway Maritime Press, London 1993. ISBN 0-85177-617-5.
• Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714 to 1792, Seaforth Publishing, London 2007. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.