Conway class post ship

Class overview
Name:	Conway-class post ships
Operators:	Royal Navy
Completed:	10
General characteristics
Type:	Sixth-rate post ship
Tons burthen:	444 33/94 (as designed)
Length:	108 ft (33 m) (gundeck) 89 ft 9.625 in (27.37168 m) (keel)
Beam:	30 ft 6 in (9.30 m)
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	155
Armament:	20 guns (from 1817, 28 guns): Upper Deck: 18 × 32-pdr carronades Quarterdeck: 6 x 12-pdr carronades Forecasle: 2 x 12-pdr carronades and 2 × 6-pdr guns

The Conway class sailing sixth rates were a series of ten Royal Navy post ships built to an 1812 design by Sir William Rule. All ten were ordered on 18 January 1812, and nine of these were launched during 1814, at the end of the Napoleonic War; the last (Tees) was delayed and was launched in 1817.

These ships were originally designated as "sloops", but were nominally rated as sixth rates of 20 guns when built, as their 12-pdr carronades were not included in the official rating. When this changed in February 1817, they were rated at 28 guns.

Ships in class

• HMS Mersey
  • Builder: William Courtney, Chester
  • Laid down: March 1813
  • Launched: March 1814
  • Completed: 26 April 1814 at Plymouth Dockyard
  • Fate: Broken up at Portsmouth in 1852.
• Chester
• Laid down: March 1813
• Launched: 19 May 1814
• Completed: 20 June 1814
• Fate: Broken up at Portsmouth in 1833.

Frindsbury

Laid down: May 1813

Launched: 10 March 1814

Completed: 7 November 1814

Fate: Sold in 1825.

Frindsbury

Laid down: May 1813

Launched: 23 March 1814

Completed: 5 November 1814

Fate: Sold in 1837.

Ipswich

Laid down: May 1813

Launched: 5 May 1814

Completed: 29 October 1814

Fate: Sold in 1819.

Bucklers Hard

Laid down: May 1813

Launched: 6 May 1814

Completed: 6 December 1814

Fate: Broken up at Plymouth in 1822.

Frindsbury

Laid down: June 1813

Launched: 5 April 1814

Completed: 8 December 1814

Fate: Broken up in 1853.

Topsham, Exeter

Laid down: August 1813

Launched: 20 May 1814

Completed: 9 November 1814

Fate: Sold in 1825.

Southampton

Laid down: September 1813

Launched: 17 August 1814

Completed: 10 July 1815

Fate: Broken up at Deptford in 1852.

Bideford

Laid down: October 1813

Launched: 17 May 1817

Completed: 30 May 1818

Fate: Sold in 1872.

References

• Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates, Chatham Publishing, London 2005. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.