Reply To: British Frigate vs French Frigate, 1793-1814 – Mark Lardas/Peter Dennis

[carojon]

Hi,

Thank you.

The book doesn’t include information on Spanish types, although I think it would be true to say that the Spanish straddled the divide between French and British types, in that they were generally constructed to be more sturdy, similar to the British, but had a large proportion of lighter armed 12-pdr ships alongside their heavier 40-gun models.

As mentioned in the post, the British designs changed the structure of the hull copied from the French models by including heavier frames and more of them closer together to produce a much sturdier ship, less prone to hogging and better able to withstand battle damage.

They then started to take the lead in designing bigger gunned options that the French followed in response to them, namely the Southampton class of 600-700 tons with 32 guns launched in 1757 with 12-pdrs offering a 60% superiority in firepower over the 9-pdr ships it succeeded, with Southampton serving until 1812, with the class further improved with 36-gun options that became the standard type throughout the late 18th early 19th century.

Then British designers led the way again during the American War of Independence with the development of the first 38-gun 18-pdr ships with the building in 1778 of the Minerva class, alarmed at reports that the French were attempting to build similar vessels. HMS Minerva displaced 940 tons and when launched in 1780 was the most powerful frigate type afloat which when armed with carronades and coppered on the hull only added to her superiority.

The rating disparity probably alludes to the British having carronades before any other navy, which massively upgunned the ships that were so armed, even though they remained classed as fifth-rates, with carronades not included in the count of the number of guns carried, which accounts for the history books focussing on broadside weight rather than guns.

All this, in greater detail is covered in the book.

JJ

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk