Warships of the Napoleonic Era: Design, Development and Deployment

WARSHIPS OF THE

NAPOLEONIC ERA

DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT

ROBERT GARDINER

THE classic British frigate portrayed in an accurate and detailed lithograph by Thomas Dutton: the Leda class frigate Pomone of 1805, built alongside her more famous sister HMS Shannon in the Frindsbury shipyard of Josiah & Thomas Brindley on the river Medway (NEG 5666)

NICHOLAS POCOCK’S panorama of Nelson’s fleet attacking Copenhagen in 1801. The city is in the distance to the right, with a line of Danish blockships and batteries defending it from the two-deckers of the British squadron. In the left foreground is a row of bomb vessels, lobbing their shells over both lines of ships, and to the right, in action with the Trekroner fort, part of the frigate squadron, including the recognisably pointed sterns of the sloops Dart and Arrow. Despite compression of the perspective, the view is remarkably accurate in the disposition and types of the ships involved. (BHC0529)

© Robert Gardiner 1999 & 2011

This edition first published in Great Britain in 2011 by

Seaforth Publishing

An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street, Barnsley

S Yorkshire S70 2AS

www.seaforthpublishing.com

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

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ISBN 978 1 84832 108 3

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CONTENTS

Foreword and Acknowledgments

Introduction

THE FIRST RATE

THE SECOND RATE

SPEED AND LENGTH

THE 80-GUN SHIP

THE 74-GUN SHIP

THE 64-GUN SHIP

THE 50-GUN SHIP

The 44-gun two-decker

FRIGATES

Post ships of 20 and 24 guns

Frigates armed with 9pdrs

Frigates armed with 12pdrs

Frigates armed with 18pdrs

Frigates armed with 24pdrs

The role of the frigate

QUALITY VERSUS QUANTITY

SLOOPS OF WAR

GUNBOATS AND GUNBRIGS

EXPERIMENTS AND INNOVATION

CUTTERS AND SCHOONERS

BOMB VESSELS AND FIRESHIPS

THE INVASION THREAT

SERVICE CRAFT

GREAT LAKES WARSHIPS

FRANCE

The French fleet

Ship types and their roles

THE BOULOGNE FLOTILLA

French design rationale

SPAIN

The Spanish fleet

THE NETHERLANDS

DENMARK-NORWAY

OTHER EUROPEAN NAVIES

Russia

Portugal

Sweden

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Sources and Notes

Index

FOREWORD AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Warships of the Napoleonic Era was first published in 1999 and the text remains essentially unchanged, although there is some additional information on selected themes, as well as the inevitable qualifications and corrections brought about by a decade of further research. What is new in this edition is mainly to be found in the illustrations – most are reproduced in colour for the first time and on a larger page size, which makes the ship draughts far more comprehensible. These plans remain the core of the illustrative material, but there are also a selection of ship models, paintings and contemporary prints, chosen to back specific points in the text.

THE DRAUGHTS

The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich houses the largest collection of original ship plans in the world. The Admiralty collections alone are an almost unbroken technical and historical record dating back to about 1700. However, for the age of sail it has some limitations in the kind of draughts it preserves. The collection is derived from the Navy Board’s central record, which are mainly the design plans produced ahead of construction; a short-lived policy of ordering ‘as fitted’ draughts in the 1770s seems to have collapsed under the weight of work brought on by the American Revolutionary War. As a result, the plans show only what was unique to that design: the hull form, the general arrangement and the basic layout of fittings. Much of the construction, and certainly the fitting out, was governed by standard practice, in earlier years known as ‘establishments’. Thus there are few rigging, or even spar, plans; very little illustration of armament; and only the vaguest indication of decorative work.

From other sources if is known that separate plans were prepared for many aspects of design and construction, but most were regarded as ephemeral and only survive in small numbers, often outside mainstream collections. The usual Admiralty draughts comprise: an external elevation, or sheer plan, in three views (side, half-breadth, and body plan); there may be a separate profile showing interior works, but this was often combined in a second colour (red) with the external sheer; deck plans, often one for each level, although small craft may include them all on one sheet; and, as construction became more individual, a disposition of frame. Alterations and additions were often marked on the master draught in green ink, which is a major argument for reproduction in full colour.

Since this book is mainly concerned with the generalities of ship design and function, most of the draughts chosen arc sheer or sheer/profile plans, intended to convey the basic characteristics of the ships for easy comparison.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

All but a handful of images in this book come from the collections of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, and the book would have been impossible without the enthusiastic cooperation of Douglas McCarthy, Rights & Images Manager of their Picture Library. The debts acknowledged in the original edition still apply, but the author would like to add Jeremy Michell and the present staff of the Brass Foundry at Woolwich, whose helpfulness and hospitality carries on the long and honourable tradition of their institution.

Outside the NMM, we must thank Major Grant Walker of the US Naval Academy Museum and Arnold and Henry Kriegstein for permission to use photos of models in their care.

INTRODUCTION

Modern warship types are usually defined by their function. There is no doubt about the role of an aircraft carrier, minesweeper, or ballistic missile submarine, but in the age of sail it was not so simple. Admittedly, there were specialist types like bomb vessels and fireships, and the line of battle ships – from which the modern term ‘battleship’ derived – were differentiated from frigates and other craft which operated outside the battle line. However, the usual type description was a rating and the number of guns carried – a 98-gun Second Rate, lor example. To the modern reader, these divisions seem arbitrary and illogical – why build a 98-gun ship as well as one of 100 guns? – but the rating system often masks quite distinct ship types with their own definable role. The purpose of this book is to illustrate each of the main types, mainly with original draughts, and to provide a commentary pointing out what each class was for, and how they were actually employed during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Of course, some of the ship types can only be explained as a result of developments pre-dating 1793, so some potted design histories are included as well.

In the sections which follow, the descriptions of the function of each type are necessarily generalisations, based on analyses of Admiralty station lists,¹ and the operations in which ships were most commonly involved. It should not be necessary to point out that the exigencies of war inevitably lead to the ‘unsuitable’ employment of many ships simply because they were the only ones available, but the existence of exceptions need not invalidate the overall conclusions. Strategic emergencies like the invasion threats of 1801 or 1803–5 often overrode normal concepts of the employment of certain ship types, but conversely the consistency of Britain’s long-term interests always meant that the Channel and Mediterranean Fleets would have first priority: the best (which at this time was usually synonymous with largest) and newest vessels in almost every class would gravitate to these commands. Since the ship itself was only one part of the ‘weapon system’, individual vessels might be chosen for specific duties because of the known efficiency of the crew, and the reputation of the officers, but the best captains often got the best ships in any case. In his memoirs Captain Philip Durham, an officer with both ability and ‘interest’, claimed, ‘Ships to me are like hackney coaches, so I will take the first off the stand’; he was trying to point out how different was his attitude from that of most officers, but it was a disingenuous claim from a man who contrived to command some of the finest ships in the Royal Navy – the big frigates Anson and Endymion and the Large Class 74, Renown, among others,²

At the other end of the scale, overseas stations were allocated forces in proportion to the importance of British interests and the perceived nature of the threat. Both interests and threats fluctuated during the war, so for example the West Indies was given higher priority early in the war when the administration concentrated on a traditional war against French colonies; later the economic nature of the conflict was reflected in the need for a permanent fleet in the Baltic to keep vital trade routes open – especially the sources of naval stores. These factors influenced employment of ships, but also the types of ships ordered, and even the emphases in their design. In broad terms, the Revolutionary War can be seen as a struggle to contain the French fleet, to allow seapower its traditional freedom to operate against the enemy’s overseas possessions and trade. For this the very best offensive ship types were needed, reflected in very large 74s and 18pdr frigates, but at the same time the very real threat of invasion produced large numbers of small gunboats. After Trafalgar, the French fleet was far less of a threat and invasion fears sub-sided, to be replaced by a form of global economic warfare which could only be answered by large numbers of ships of every description. This became the era of the standard, usually moderate-sized, ship built in vast quantities: ‘Surveyors’ class 74s, Apollo class frigates, and Cruizer class brig sloops; even the anti-invasion gunboats grew into seagoing gunbrigs to fill out the numbers.

JOHN PERRY’S Blackwall Yard on the north bank of the Thames was the largest private shipbuilding facility in the world when Francis Holman painted this view. It shows the yard in 1784 at the height of its success when there were three 74s, two 44s, an East Indiaman and a West Indiaman on the stocks at the same time. Although the very largest warships were only ever constructed in the Royal Dockyards, the existence of a massive commercial industry capable of building anything else required made the Royal Navy unbeatable in any arms race. Indeed, right at the end of the wars, when resources were stretched to the limit, this very yard – then owned by Sir Robert Wigram – turned out three 38s, five large 40-gun and two 50-gun frigates in one remarkable 18-month period. (BHC1866)

Politics also played a part, of course: Lord Spencer’s Admiralty was well disposed towards technological improvement and prepared to spend the extra on larger ships; St Vincent’s, which followed, was not, being elected on a promise to retrench and reform. In the individual ship type descriptions which follow, every attempt has been made to draw out these relationships in the belief that what was done was done for a reason – and often a good one at that.

THE ORDER OF BATTLE

By 1793 the rating divisions were as follows: First Rate – 100 guns and above; Second – 90 to 98 guns; Third – 64 to 80 guns; Fourth – 50 to 60 guns; Fifth – 32 to 44 guns; Sixth – 20 to 28 guns. These were nominal armaments because the introduction of the carronade, which did not figure in the rating system, meant that most ships carried more guns than their listing. At one time the rates had been continuous, but over the years there had been a tendency to concentrate on certain num-bers: hence the gaps in the sequence. The first three were regarded as suitable for the line of battle, and the Fifth and Sixth were cruisers; the Fourth had belonged to the line earlier in the century but by now occupied a curious intermediate status, but one which still required a few ships. All rated ships were commanded by Post Captains, but below these were ‘sloops’ (not just sloops of war proper, but any vessels captained by a Master and Commander), and a kaleidoscope of small craft commanded by Lieutenants.

OPPOSING NAVIES

The success of the Royal Navy in the wars of 1793–1815 was unprecedented in the age of sail, victories being achieved against every significant naval power that was arrayed against it. It was British policy to make draughts of every interesting prize, to be studied and retained as part of the Navy’s technical archive. Most of these have survived, and since they tend to show the ships ‘as taken’, they are often more detailed (and certainly more reliable as evidence of actual appearance and fitting) than any official drawings from their country of origin. Indeed, the archives of countries like France are by no means comprehensive in terms of preserved drawings, and most are very basic lines plans, omitting many of the fittings and decorative work.

In the sections devoted to the Royal Navy’s opponents, the examples have been chosen to represent the range of types and characteristic naval architecture of the navy concerned. In the final analysis, all navies reflect state policy, which may impose differing strategic views of seapower and the tactical employment of ships on each navy’s designers. This produced subtle variations in the design emphases of each country’s warships, so the commentary and captions attempt to explain these in broad terms, by reference to the way the ships were employed during the war.

THE British habit of surveying and making plans of captured enemy ships endowed the Royal Navy with a profound understanding of its opponents’ technology. These plans often depicted the ships ‘as taken’, before they were refitted to meet British needs, and show the original fittings and sometimes even details of the decorative work. This is a fine example: the frigate Proserpine built at Brest in 1785, captured in 1796 and renamed Amelia in British service. Many European naval archives have been depleted or damaged, and even surviving draughts rarely show this level of detail, so the existence of the Admiralty Collection covering most of the belligerent navies is a boon for historians. (J5575)

THE FIRST RATE

The largest, most powerful and most costly ships to build, maintain and operate, First Rates were the pride of their navies and the embodiment of national honour and self-esteem. They were built to the highest standards, lavishly fitted out and decorated, and carried carefully selected names that promoted the prestige and aspirations of the state. This was equally true whether the country was ruled by a monarchy or a revolutionary junta – the protean politics of the French regimes of the 1790s are mirrored in the frequent name changes visited upon their ships: to give only one example, the royalist Dauphin Royal became the proletarian Sans Culotte in 1792, and was again renamed L’Orient to celebrate France’s eastern ambitions.

Because they represented such substantial investments, First Rates were built with the greatest care and attention. Construction was always undertaken by the Royal Dockyards, using the finest materials, and concern for longevity led to prolonged building times to achieve the most profound seasoning. Ten years on the stocks was not unusual, and the shortest time of this period – three and a half years for the Caledonia – is misleading because the ship had been ordered ten years previously and it was Dockyard practice to assign, season and even cut timber well in advance of the keel-laying.

First Rates were rarely commissioned except in times of war and crisis, so their hulls were not subjected to the continuous stresses of long sea service. They were also maintained carefully while in Ordinary (reserve), and when necessary were treated to extensive repairs, amounting in some cases to major rebuilding. The aggregate effect of this was to endow First Rates with very long lives: as is well known, Victory had been afloat for forty years when she fought at Trafalgar, and Britannia was three years older. However, Victory had been in Dockyard hands for periods of around six months on four occasions between 1771 and 1788 and was substantially reconstructed between February 1800 and April 1803.

Despite their importance (or perhaps because of it), the development of First Rates in the eighteenth-century Royal Navy was very conservative. By 1700 English First Rates measured about 1800 tons, which by the end of the century had reached 2600 tons, the rate of increase speeding up significantly in the last decades. This is a growth of about 44 per cent, whereas the standard two-decker 70/74-gun ship was enlarged from 1100 tons to 1900 tons (73 per cent) during the same period. The pace of development was not quickened by the small numbers of First Rates built, and although there was steady inflation in size, British First Rates remained smaller than their French and Spanish equivalents until the end of the Napoleonic War. Ever since the Sovereign of the Seas of 1637, 100 guns was usually considered the mark of a First Rate (although some seventeenth-century examples rated a few less). They were carried on three full gundecks, plus an armed quarterdeck, forecastle and, often, poop. In 1700 the main calibres were twenty-eight 32pdrs, twenty-eight 18pdrs and twenty-eight 9pdrs, and eighteenth-century development gradually increased the numbers on the gundecks, simultaneously reducing those on the upperworks, and introduced more powerful calibres on most decks. The 18pdrs and 9pdrs became 24s and 12s in 1716, and in 1719 the 32pdrs were replaced with 42s; tonnage did not increase much and the Royal George, ordered in 1746, was the first to exceed 2000 tons; the Victory of 1758 had thirty guns on lower and upper decks. As with most ship types, there was little improvement during the American War – although the cumbersome 42pdrs were gradually replaced by the more practical 32s – and the next major step forward was the introduction of the 110-gun class with the Ville de Paris, ordered in 1788, with thirty ports on each of the lowest two gundecks and thirty-two on the upper (where the calibre was also increased from 12s to 18pdrs); Hibernia of 1790 contrived two extra ports per gun-deck, and reached 2500 tons. The last design to see any real service during the war was the Caledonia of 1794, the first British 120-gun ship, which mounted thirty-two 32pdrs, thirty-four 24s, thirty-four 18s, and twenty 12s on the quarterdeck and forecastle. Smaller 100-gun ships came into service in the second half of the war, but there was a tendency to down-rate them to 98-gun Second Rates.

There were never many First Rates available, and because of lengthy building times, the substantial programmes of the 1790s were just bearing fruit when the war came to an end. (See Table 1.)

At first sight it is surprising that the world’s largest navy did not have the greatest numbers of First Rates, but in 1793 France could boast five of 110 guns and three even larger 118-gun ships; Spain in 1796 was even better off with ten 110-gun ships and the mighty Santisíma Trinidad, a nominal four-decker of 136 guns and generally regarded as the largest ship afloat. These ships were not only larger – the Commerce de Marseilles measured nearly 2750 tons – but the French ships in particular were more powerfully armed with lower deck 36pdrs (about 40 pounds English). However, the Royal Navy possessed a trump card in the form of sixteen small three-deckers of the Second Rate (see next section), which had no direct equivalent in the fleets of either of its main opponents.

APERFECT image of the First Rate in all its pomp, the new Ville de Paris flying the flag of Admiral Sir John Jervis (shortly to be ennobled as the Earl of St Vincent) leading the fleet out of the Tagus on 31 March 1797. First of the expanded 110-gun ships, the odd-sounding name of this ship celebrated the capture of the French flagship at the Saintes, the first time the Royal Navy had taken an enemy First Rate. This grey wash drawing is by Thomas Buttersworth, a seaman-artist who served with this fleet. (CO860)

CALEDONIA OF 120 GUNS, AS BUILT AT PLYMOUTH AND LAUNCHED 25TH JUNE 1808.

Representing the wartime development of the First Rate, Caledonia shows the new closed-in and more upright stern, as well as the more seaworthy ‘round’ bow, eschewing the beakhead and built up to forecastle level. The additional gunports are evident but less obvious is the greater freeboard of the lower deck battery, which made the later three-deckers better able to fight in all weathers. The last First Rate to see much active service, Caledonia was Gambier’s flagship at Basque Roads in 1809, and later Pellew’s as commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. (J1952)

A1/48TH SCALE MODEL of the Victory of 100 guns after her ‘Large Repair’ of 1800–1803, so showing the overall appearance of the ship as she fought at Trafalgar. The