The Roebuck-class ship was a class of twenty 44-gun sailing two-decker warships of the Royal Navy.

Some seven years after the design was first produced, the Admiralty re-used it for a second batch of nineteen ships.

The Admiralty ordered them to meet the particular requirements of the American War of Independence for vessels suitable for coastal warfare in the shallow seas off North America (where deeper two-deckers could not sail).

The first five vessels of the class, and the later Guardian, had two rows of stern lights (windows), like larger two-deckers, though actually there was just the single level of cabin behind.

Most, if not all, of the other ships of the class - from Dolphin onwards - had a 'single level' frigate-type stern.