The initial order was for fourteen vessels spread over three building seasons with another four added in 1696.

Each ship was built to a generalized specification with dimensional creep accruing in all vessels.

[2] The initial gun armament would be twenty sakers mounted on wooden trucks located on the upper deck (UD) with a further four 3-pounders[Note 3] mounted on wooden trucks on the quarterdeck (QD).

A saker or sacar was a muzzle-loading smoothbore gun of 1,400 pounds in weight with a 3+1⁄2-inch bore firing a 5+1⁄2-pound shot with a 5+1⁄2-pound powder charge.

[3] In 1703 the armament would be established at twenty 6-pounders mounted on wooden trucks on the upper deck with four 4-pounders on the quarterdeck.