James Dodds - Building the Wooden Fighting Ship

2 The capture of Princessa by Kent, Orford and Lenox, 1740. Oil painting by P. Monamy. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. It was from this Spanish ship and later French prizes that the design of the English 74-gun man-of-war was evolved

There was very little difference in the length of English first, second and third rates. The largest vessels had virtually reached the maximum length in relation to weight and strength that could be achieved in timber construction. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, in fact, shipwrights had built the largest ships possible with all-wood construction, and from then until the early years of the nineteenth century the industry seems almost to have stood still. Improvements were made, but it was the details of the design that changed rather than the size or method of construction. It was not until the end of the eighteenth century that the more extensive use of iron fastenings, knees and later cross-bracing enabled the length of vessels to be increased. These developments meant that less weight of timber could be used, thus giving a lighter construction, yet at the same time strengthening the hull.

In first and second rates the guns were carried on three decks; third and fourth rates had two gun-carrying decks; and fifth and sixth rates only one. In the case of two- and three-deckers, what was called the gun deck proper was the lower, or lowest, of the gun-carrying decks, and was just above the waterline. This was where the heaviest guns were carried, the main armament. The largest guns used by the Navy at this time were 42-pounders, the figure referring to the weight of shot fired by the breech-loading cannons. A third rate, for example, would have twenty-eight 32-pounders, each weighing 55 cwt. Thus the gun deck had to be immensely strong both to support the armament and to withstand the shock of recoil when a broadside was fired, all the guns on one side of the vessel being discharged virtually simultaneously. First and second rates were higher, beamier and generally bluffer in the bows than third rates to provide the additional displacement required to compensate for the third deck. With only two decks, third rates had a lower centre of gravity and were, on the whole, lighter in construction, thus making them faster and easier to handle. They gave a good balance between fast hull shape and number of guns.