delatbabel
Posts: 1252
Joined: 7/30/2006 From: Sydney, Australia Status: offline
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Also I can't say I agree with the heavy ships / light ships distinctions as applied to EiANW. Basically, all of the ships that fought in major engagements, except the odd few, were heavy ships. 4th and lower rate ships didn't stand in the line of battle. The problem you have with a "heavy" vs "light" ships as per EiANW is that the typical "heavy" ship (say around 80-100 guns in the Trafalgar period), not only outclassed the smaller (30 - 36 gun) frigates but they also had larger guns (typically 24 pounders vs 12 pounders) plus much more heavily armoured hulls. With the exception of some of the american 40 gun frigates, you could throw 4 or 5 30 gun frigates at a 96 gun first rate ship, and they'd all be blown out of the water pretty much before they even got into close enough range to score any significant amount of damage to it. Unless one of the lighter ships got lucky and managed to stern rake the first-rate ship, the heavier ship would come away with very little damage, wheras a single broadside from 48 or so 24 pound guns would obliterate a light ship. Look at the lines of battle at the major engagements such as Aboukir Bay, Trafalgar, 1st June, etc, etc -- they were all heavy ships on each side, with perhaps 4-5 smaller ships as "escorts" or hangers on to run around the lines, do signaling duties, etc. The smaller ships never really got into battle, except with each other.
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-- Del
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