Niger class frigate

Class overview
Name:	Niger-class frigate
Built:	1757–1766
In commission:	1759–1814
Completed:	11
General characteristics
Tons burthen:	679 67/94 (as designed)
Length:	125 ft (38 m)
Beam:	35 ft 2 in (11 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft (4 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	220
Armament:	32 guns comprising: Upperdeck: 26 × 12-pounder guns Quarterdeck: 4 × 6-pounder guns Forecastle: 2 × 6-pounder guns

The Niger-class frigates were 32-gun sailing frigates of the fifth rate produced for the Royal Navy. They were designed in 1757 by Sir Thomas Slade, and were an improvement on his 1756 design for the 32-gun Southampton-class frigates.

Slade's design was approved in September 1757, on which date four ships were approved to be built to these plans - three by contract and a fourth in a royal dockyard. Seven more ships were ordered to the same design between 1759 and 1762 - three more to be built by contract and four in royal dockyards. Stag and Quebec were both reduced to 28-gun sixth rates in 1778, but were then restored to 32-gun fifth rates in 1779.

Ships in class

• Stag
  • Ordered: 19 September 1757
  • Built by: Thomas Stanton & Company, Rotherhithe.
  • Keel laid: 26 September 1757
  • Launched: 4 September 1758
  • Completed: 4 December 1758 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Taken to pieces at Deptford Dockyard in July 1783.
• Alarm
  • Ordered: 19 September 1757
  • Built by: John Barnard & John Turner, Harwich.
  • Keel laid: 26 September 1757
  • Launched: 19 September 1758
  • Completed: 24 June 1759 at the builder's shipyard.
  • Fate: Taken to pieces at Portsmouth Dockyard in September 1812.
• edit] 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.

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