"All at Sea - New Spanish Builds, Spanish Frigate Ninfa" Topic

The core of my Spanish collection of ships concludes with the completion of the Mahoneasas class frigate Ninfa.

Completed in 1795, the Ninfa's life was short, being captured by the British in 1797 and renamed HMS Hamadryad, she was to founder in a storm on Christmas day of that year.

If you would like to know more then follow the link to JJ's.

link

JJ

Beautifully done.

Those Spanish 34s seem a little under-gunned with 12lb main and 6lb secondary armament. The cannonades would have helped a bit but a few more of them wouldn't have hurt.

Do you know if the armament changed when in the Royal Navy?

Thank you

Yes the 12-pounder frigate previously the standard option, was made almost obsolete when the British introduced the 18-pounder 38-gun option during the AWI, closely followed by the French with theIr 40-gun models.

This upsizing was hard on the heels of the rapid introduction of the 74-gun ships that had a similar effect on the standard 64-gun option.

I can't find much information about these Spanish frigates. The Madrid Naval Museum suggests that these ships were gradually unarmed with additional guns and light carronades, but I don't know what the Royal Navy did with them. The Mahonesa was also captured and taken in as a 36-gun frigate, but was so badly damaged she was not used as a cruiser.