Scamander-class frigate

Class overview
Operators Royal Navy
Completed10
General characteristics
TypeFifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen930 25/94 (as designed)
Length
  • 143 ft (44 m) (gundeck)
  • 120 ft 0.75 in (36.5951 m) (keel)
Beam38 ft 2 in (11.63 m)
Draught12 ft 4 in (3.76 m)
PropulsionSail
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement274 (later raised to 284 from 1813).
Armament
  • UD: 26 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 12 × 32-pounder carronades
  • FC: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades

The Scamander class sailing frigates were a series of ten 36-gun ships, all built by contract with private shipbuilders to an 1812 design by Sir William Rule, which served in the Royal Navy during the late Napoleonic War and War of 1812.

They were all built of "fir" (actually, pine), selected as a stop-gap measure because of the urgent need to build ships quickly, with the Navy Board supplying red pine timber to the contractors from dockyard stocks for the first seven ships. The last three were built of yellow pine. While quick to build, the material was not expected to last as long as oak-built ships, and indeed all were deleted by 1819, except the Tagus which lasted to 1822.