Quote Originally Posted by Fisherking View Post
As to hull thickness you could be right. I did find it interesting that the Heavy Frigates carried about the same number of 24#s as the First Rates.

As I said earlier I intend it as a tactical experiment. Seldom did two Heavy Frigates work together. I would just love to see what a squadron of them could do.
They had pretty much same length as a SOL so they had the room. The biggest problem was if they could carry the weight of such gun because it added a lot of stress to the deck. That was the problem for the French when they experimented with their 24# heavy frigates. Even SOL's had trouble as some were given 36# that really were too heavy for them.

USS Constellation started out with 24# but it seems that was reduced to 18# later on. Wiki mentions trouble with top weight so that might have been the problem.

I have tried frigates versus SOL's both in the board/miniature game "Close Action" and Age of Sail 2. It's not easy but it can be done, just expect some damaged ships heh.


CBR