Age of Sail Research

I thought I'd research the ships of the period and compare the book values to the data I had available. The Book values make for a fun game and are fine. I just wanted to see what was out there for myself. 

Frigates: In the book the author provides one value for the 6th rate and one for 5th rate frigates. I was curious about this and decided to research it a bit. I found the following data on British frigates: 

As one can see from this data, the 28 gun frigate, the 6th rate,  threw a little less than 200 pounds of ordinance per side and about 1/3rd of this is derived from the short ranged carronades. The "5th rates" however, range from the lowely 32 gun, 12# ship to the massive 38 gun 18# ships. As I look at this data I see 3 rough groups of 5th rates. First there is the older, small 12#, 32 gun group. These fire roughly 200 to 250 pounds per broadside and aren't much different from the 6th rates really. Then I see the 18# 32 gun and 36 gun frigates (and one 38 gun class). These fire around 300 to 350 pounds per broadside and for the most part are later designs. Finally there are the 'heavy' 36's and 38's firing well over 400, and many fire close to 500 pounds per broadside. This last group typically carry heavy 32# carronades which acccount for almost half their broadside weight. 

I can now see the challenge to the game designers in translating this into game terms. I concluded be creating the following for my games and scenrios: 
6th Rate: 3(2/-/1) = 9# 32 with light carronades
Light 5th Rate: 3(2/-/1) = 12# 32's
Medium 5th Rate: 4(3/-/1) = 18# 32 and 36's
Heavy 5th Rate: 4(2/-/2) = 18# 36 and 38's with Hvy. carronades

Please also consider the following rare or unique ships: 
Old 5th Rate: 4(4/-/-) = 36 or 38 gun ship without carronades
HMS Castor (32) 4(1/-/3) = armed with 28 24#C's and 6 long 9's.
HMS Endymion (40) 5(-/3/2) = armed with 28 24# guns, 2 9# guns and 18 32# carronades. She was apparently equipped this way until 1803 when the 24# guns were replaced with 18# guns. 

The British 3rd Rates: As I dug into the Frigate data I quickly became interested in the Ships of the Line also. The published values for the "Large 3rd Rate" is 7(4/2/1) while the Small 3rd Rate showing 6(3/2/1). The British tended to build a few ships of a particular class but had many classes of ships. From 1755 to 1775 there were11 classes of 74 gun ships. From 1776 to 1813 there were 18 more classes of 74 with 2 or more ships to the class. The class with the most ships was the Venguer class of 1810 (40 total, 35 launched before then end of the war). 

The early classes tended to be armed pretty uniformly with 28 32#, 28 18#, and 18 9# guns for a total broadside weight of 781 pounds. This armament seems pretty consistent from the ships built from the 1760's up through the early 1800's. It is only in a class begun in 1802 and the Venguer class of 1810 that the armament was altered to something like 28 32#, 28 18#, 6 12# guns and 12 32# and 6 18#  carronades for a total broadside weight of 928 pounds. Probably many of the 74's in the royal navy were retrofitted with carronade armaments in the late 90's or early 1800's but I don't have good documentation of this. 

It appears that the British didn't have many 74's with 24# guns in their upper deck during the war. The exception I found was the Ajax of 1797. It appears this heavy armamenet was common to the 80 gun ship but not the 74 in the royal navy. The French appear to have two classes of 74's from the early 1800's which could carry these heavier guns. 

While some probably were upgraded, I have no records of the small 64 gun 3rd rate being retrofitted with carronades, other than when a small number were razeed into 44 gun frigates in 1797. Three of the Ardent 64's (with a broadside weight of 497 pounds) were cut down to 44 guns (6 of which were 42# carronades) and the broadside weight went up to 510 pounds. 

After looking over the data I created the following Royal Navy 3rd Rates for my scenarios and games: 
3rd Rate: 80 8(3/3/2)
3rd Rate: Late 74  7(3/3/1)
3rd Rate: Early 74 7(4/3/-)
3rd Rate 64 6(3/3/-)
Razee Frigate: 44 5(1/3/1)

Unique or rare 3rd Rates
HMS Ajax (74) 7(1/6/-)

The 1st and 2nd Rates
Since I dug into the 3rd rates and frigates I figured I'd better look into the 1st and seconds while I was at it. I think the British were the only builders of second rates during the time covered by the game. In the 1770's to 1815 there were only about 4 classes of 90 to 98 gun ships. The 'authorized' amraments of 3 of the 4 classes didn't include carronades and rated between 950 to 1050 pounds of broadside firepower. The Boyne class of 1810 did include carronades and had a throw weight of 1284, quite impressive. 

The British built first rates were rare and many were unique. I think there were only 8 of them in this time frame: Victory (100) of 1765, Royal Sovereign (100) of 1786, Umpire class of 3 ships (one burned in 1800, the other two made it to the end of the war),  Caledonia (120) of 1808, the Ville de Paris (110) of 1795, the Hibernia (110) of 1804 and the Ocean (110) of 1805. Of course the British captured several of the first rates from France and Spain during the wars. And where they could they reflaged, refitted and redeployed them. 

The ships launched prior to 1800 do not appear have carronades in their original complements and still threw between 1000 and 1200 pounds down range. And ships like the Victory had at least some carronades fitted around 1800. The later 1st rates broadsides started in the low 1200's and went up to just under 1500 pounds in broadside weight. After looking at the various armaments I see the following possibilities: 

Older 1st Rates: 10(4/6/-) = Victory (100)
Middle 1st Rates: 11(3/6/2) or 11(5/6/-)  = Ville de Paris (110) and Queen Charlotte (104)
Late 1st Rates: 12(4/6/2) = Hibernia (110) and Caledonia (120)
I think all are valid values based on prototype data. 

British Ship Sumary:

The ships of the various governments of France from 1770 to 1815 were interesting and subtly different from the British navy. 

Les Frégates: 
The smallest (6th Rate) french ships from the 1770's werre mostly built in the 40's to 60's. I have no record of any 20 to 30 gun ships being launched after the 1760's. The French standardized on the 8# gun compared to the 9# of the british. The French 6th rate was much weaker in firepower than their British rivals as there's nothing to suggest they  were ever armed with carronades.  

There were many 32 gun classes through the 70's to 90's and all were armed with 12# long guns some 6# guns. I see no record of 18# 32 gun frigates built by the French. The French did arm at least 2 classes with up to 6 36# obusiers (howitzers or basically carronades for game purposes). And I see several cases where the British re-armed captured French 32's with a small complement of 32#C's. And in the case of Le Modeste, she was rearmed with 26 18# guns, 16 32# carronades and 2 long 9's by the british, so some of these small french 5th rates were quite stout vessels.  

It seems all of the 18# armed ships were classed as 34 or more guns in the French navy and were built from the 80's on. An early 36 gun frigate would have 26 18# guns and 8 8# totalling 266 pounds of broadside. By the mid 90's the French were  adding obusiers to their 36 to 40 gun frigates. Based on the data I have access to the French never added as many howitzers to their frigates as the British did with carronades, I'm guesssing that the French obusier wasn't as compact or light as the carronade. 

The french had 6 classes of 40 (up to 44) gun frigates armed with 18# guns, all built after 1795 and all had some compliment of howitzer, or in the latest ships of the period a 22# carronade.

Hvy. 5th Rate 4(2/-/2) 40-44 with C
Md. 5th Rate 4(3/-/1) 36 to 38 with O's
Lt. 5th Rate 3(2/-/1) 32 w/O's
Lt. 5th Rate 3(3/-/-) 1770's to 90's 32 gun 12#
6th Rate 3(3/-/-) 1760's - 8# 

Oddities: Interestingly enough the French did build two classes of 40 gun ships armed with 12 pounders in the 90's. Also in the 90's they built a class of 40 gun frigate with 24 24# cannon, 16 8# guns and a mortar. Although the 24's were replaced with 18's and the mortar was removed or never installed. 

24# 5th Rate 4(2/2/-)
old 5th Rate 4(4/-/-)

Vessels of the Line:
In looking at the data, the French approach to 3rd rates was different from the British navy. Before 1774 the French appear to have built 'vessels of 64' and 'vessels of 74' guns in generally a one off fashion, I only see a couple 'classes' of 64 gun ships in their list and no 74 gun classes at all. Any that survived into the period of revolution and empire would probably be armed with a 36# low deck, 18# mid deck and 8# guns on the top. 

From 1774 to '92 the french began building 1st and 3rd rate classes of ships in earnest. The 1st Rate Royal Dauphin or Ocean class (118)  was launched during this time, as were the Tonnant (80) and famous Temeraire (74) classses. Very few, 7, 64 gunners were built in this time and once the Republic came to power no more were built. 

The French 74 gun battle ship, from '74 to '92, was built in great numbers and well equipped. The typical armament before 80's was a low deck of 36# guns, a mid deck of 18# guns and top decks equipped with 8 pounders. In about 1782 we see the depolyment of 4 36# howitzers on the top deck as well.  This brought the broadside weight from 838 to 910 or quite comparable to the British 3rd rates of the same time frame.  The other significant event in 1782 was the launching of Le Temeraire (74), a wonderful design by Jaques Sané. According to my sources these were armed with a low deck of 28 36# cannon, a mid deck of 30 24# cannon and upper decks populated with 18 12# guns and 4 36# howitzers, yielding a broadside weight of 1044 pounds, or roughly 100 pounds heavier than contemporary British ships. 

The 80 gun, heavy 3rd rate, was being well developed by the French, as they didn't build anything in the 90 to 100 gun range during this time I guess they expected the 80 to 'fill in'. The Tonnant was heavily armed while in the French service, with 30 36#, 32 24#, 18 12#, 4 36 #O, delivering a 1104 pound broadside. When she was redeployed under the british flag the 24# guns were replaced with 18 pounders which dropped the broadside weight 100 pounds.

From the founding of the Republic in '92 to the declaration of Empire in 1804 The French Navy saw the addition of more Ocean class first rates, more Tonnant class heavy 3rd rates, and many more Temeraire class 74 gunners. There were no real changes in armament or introduction of new classes at this time. After Napoleon claimed Emporer in 1804 a few things changed. Five more 118 gun Ocean class ships were built and after 1806 these big ships carried more obusiers. Also a new slightly smaller Commerce de Paris class of 110 guns was launched, this was a slightly smaller version of the Ocean class also armed witwhmore obusisers. The 80 gun Tonnant class was superceded by the 80gun Bucentaure class but with no significant changes. And in 1805 the Temeraire class was augmented with the Pluton 74 class, a somewhat more shallow draft vessel to be built in ports outside of France.  I have seen no data to suggest the French equipped their ships of the line with the 22# carronade.

So for the period I see: 

74's pre '82: 7(4/3/-)
74's post '82 7(1/6/-)
80's 8(2/6/-)
120's pre '06 11(5/6/-)
110's and 120's 12(5/6/1)

List of Frigate Classes of the Royal Navy site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_frigate_classes_of_the_Royal_Navy

List of SOL Classes of the Royal Navy site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_of_the_line_of_the_Royal_Navy

List of Sail Frigate Classes of the French Navy site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_French_sail_frigates

List of SOL Classes of the French Navy site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_of_the_line_of_France

List of SOLs of the Spansih Navy site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_of_the_line_of_Spain
This list needs help

Julian Stockwin's site: http://www.julianstockwin.com/Age%20of%20Sail.htm

Life abord a french 74 gun ship of the French Navy site: http://www.musee-marine.fr/public/virtuel/vie%20a%20bord/index.ht

The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War, 1600-1815, By Brian Lavery, (C) 1987 Brian Lavery, Conway Maritime Press :http://books.google.com/books?id=djwmMDm48uwC&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&dq=12+pound+naval+gun&source=bl&ots=836YbYpFaa&sig=ik_qY5ket-j0V_HiZLUq1ql7xCM&hl=en&ei=ilTUTIqrOYPQsAONuoyNCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CDsQ6AEwCDge#v=onepage&q=12%20pound%20naval%20gun&f=false

Patrick O'Brian's Navy: The Illustrated Companion to Jack Aubrey's World, by Richard O'Neill, (C) 2003 Salamander Books