I'm bored at the moment, so I decided to write this, to centralize my thoughts and ideas about the royal navy, about which I recently have read much about.
The royal navy was organized into a class or rating system in the mid-17th century, after the 30 Years' War. It is by this system that the majority of ships of not only Britain, but also the entire world were judged. The system looked much like this:Displacements are in tons, taken from this link: http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita.../ship/rate.htmQuote:
Ship of the line
1st Rate, Guns: 100 or more, Gun Decks: 3 + forecastle and quarterdeck, Crew: 850 to 875, Displacement: >2000
2nd Rate, Guns: 90 to 98, Gun Decks: 3 + forecastle and quarterdeck, Crew: 700 to 750, Displacement: about 2000
3rd Rate, Guns: 64 to 80, Gun Decks: 2, Crew: 500 to 650, Displacement: 1300-1600
Frigate
4th Rate, Guns: 50 to 60, Gun Decks: 2, Crew: 320 to 420, Displacement: about 1000
5th Rate, Guns: 32 to 40, Gun Decks: 1, Crew: 200 to 300, Displacement: 700 to 1450
6th Rate, Guns: 20 to 28, Gun Decks: 1, Crew: 140 to 200, Displacement: 450 to 550
Sloop-of-war
Guns: 16 to 18, Gun Decks: 1, Crew: 90 to 125, Displacement: 380
Gun-brig and Cutter
Guns: 6 to 14, Gun Decks: 1, Crew: 5 to 25, Displacement: < 220
The jobs and positions for each ship varied. Generally ships of the first and second rate were kept at home for use in the "line" or the line of ships used in a battle. The line was a common tactic at the time, it provided a continuous stream of fire. In battle, ships would usually line up in a large single-file line. The center of the formation would contain the largest and strongest ships, with the edges having lighter and faster ships. Thusly, the flag-ship was generally at the center of the formation. This line would proceed parallel to the enemy line. The two lines would sail by each other and unleash fire upon each other.
The ships of the time, being wooden, were very hard to sink, in opposition to what we think of them today. Generally the act of winning a battle depended on one of three outcomes:
1) The ship would be disabled so it couldn't move or so mangled so it could no longer fire.
2) The ship would surrender its colors after seeing that a battle was lost.
3) The ship would be forcefully boarded and captured.
This part is speculatory:
Judging from normal actions I believe that the first one would have occured most often in Europe itself, when massive ship formations firing at each other would have made a boarding difficult. The second one would have happened in frontier territories and colonies, where one-on-one ship fights were common. There, the quickest and most profitable way to win a battle would be to capture an enemy ship. The second way would have been used evenly in both areas. The fact that wooden ships were so hard to sink could be one of the many reasons why large well-built ships tended to change hands so often during the age of sail.
The first three rates, the ships of the line, were only heavily concentraded in Europe itself. Abroad in colonies or frontier territories it was often considered too risky to use a 1st rate or 2nd rate ship in battle on a large scale. Instead, often a 2nd or 1st rate ship would serve as a flagship in a colonial fleet. The backbone of the colonial fleet would be 3rd rate ships backed by a large array of frigates. This would be one of the reasons why the 74 gun ship of the line was the most popular heavy ship in Europe in the age of sail.
The purpose of frigates was almost strictly colonial. They were useful as heavy pirate-battering ships, designed to destroy larger pirate fleets and forts with sheer firepower. Against other nations in war, the frigate was too light to be used in heavy battles. Instead, they themselves would often serve as pirate vessels or they would scout enemy fleets, returning the locations of the enemy to aid the main body of heavy ships.
Sloops-of-war, gun-brigs and cutters were the true core of colonial and pirate fleets. They were small, fast and could easily overpower merchant vessels. They could operate quickly and attack merchant vessels before help could arrive. Therefore, they were the favorites of pirates, smugglers and nations trying to prevent piracy and smuggling. Sloops-of-war and cutters were the largest parts of the early American fleet, due to the fact that the need to prevent piracy was so great. In the American fleet, frigates served more of the role as the heavy ships. In Europe, small ships were completely useless in the line of battle. A larger ship could overpower them in seconds and generally European waters were patrolled much more heavily by heavily armed vessels than frontier colonies in places such as the carribean.
Questions, comments, corrections?
