Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/193

 NAVY 185 round house ; on her lower deck she carried 30 guns, 42- and 32-pounders ; 30 on her middle deck, 18- and 9-pounders ; on her upper deck 26 lighter guns, probably 6- and 3-pounders. Besides these, she carried 20 chase guns and 26 guns on her forecastle and half deck. But on her regular home establishment this arma- ment was reduced to 100 guns, the full com- plement being evidently too much for her. As to the smaller vessels, our information is very scanty. In 1651 the navy was classed in six rates ; but besides them there continued to ex- ist numerous classes of unrated ships, such as shallops, hulks, and later bombs, sloops, fire ships, and yachts. In 1677 we find a list of the whole English navy ; according to which, the largest first rate three-decker carried 26 42- pdrs., 28 24-pdrs., 28 9-pdrs., 14 6-pdrs., and 4 3-pdrs. ; and the smallest two-decker (fifth rate) carried 18 18-pdrs., 8 6-pdrs., and 4 4- pdrs., or 30 guns in all. The whole fleet con- sisted of 129 vessels. In 1714 we find 198 vessels ; in 1727, 178 ; and in 1744, 128. Af- terward, as the number of vessels increases, their size also gets larger, and the heaviness of the armament is augmented with the. ton- nage. The first English ship answering to our modern frigate was built by Sir Robert Dud- ley, as early as the end of the 16th century; but it was not till fully 80 years later that this class of ships, first used by the southern Euro- pean nations, was generally adopted in the Brit- ish navy. The particular fast-sailing qualities of frigates were little understood for some time in England. British ships were generally over- gunned, so that their lower ports were but 3 ft. from the water's edge, and could not be opened in a rough sea, and the sailing capaci- ties of the vessels were also greatly impaired. Both the Spaniards and the French allowed more tonnage in proportion to the number of guns ; the consequence was that their ships could carry heavier calibre and more stores, had more buoyancy, and were better sailers. The English frigates of the first half of the 18th century carried as many as 44 guns, of 9, 12, and a few of 18 Ibs. calibre, with a tonnage of about 710. By 1780 frigates of 38 guns (mostly 18- pdrs.) and of 946 tons were built. The French frigates of the same epoch, with a similar ar- mament, averaged 100 tons more. About the same time (the middle of the 18th century) the smaller men-of-war were more accurately classed in the modern way as corvettes, brigs, brigantines, and schooners. In 1779 a piece of ordnance was invented (probably by the British Gen. Melville) which changed to a great extent the armaments of most navies. It was a very short gun, with a large calibre, approach- ing in its shape a howitzer, but intended to throw solid shot, with small charges, at short ranges. These guns were first manufactured by the Carron iron company, in Scotland, and were hence called carronades. The shot from this gun, useless at long ranges, had fearful ef- fects upon timber at close quarters; from its reduced velocity (by the reduced charge), it made a larger hole, shattered the timber far more, and made numerous and more dangerous splinters. The comparative lightness of the guns, too, made it easy to find room for a few of them on the quarter deck and forecastle of vessels ; and as early as 1781 there were 429 ships in the British navy provided with from six to ten carronades over and above their regular complement of guns. In reading the accounts of naval engagements during the French and American wars, it should be borne in mind that the British never include the car- ronades in the number of guns given as a ship's complement; so that, for instance, a British frigate, stated to be a 36-gun frigate, may in reality have carried 42 or more guns, including the carronades. The superior weight of metal which the carronades gave to the British broad- sides, helped to decide many an action fought at close quarters during the war of the French revolution. But after all, carronades were merely a make-shift to increase the strength of the comparatively small-sized men-of-war of a century ago. As soon as the size of the ships was increased for each rating, they were again cast aside, and are now superseded by other arms. At that period, in the construction of men-of-war, the French and Spaniards were decidedly ahead of the English. Their ships were larger and designed with far better lines than the British ; their frigates especially were superior both in size and sailing qualities ; and for many years the English frigates were cop- ied from the French frigate Hebe, captured in 1782. In the same proportion as the vessels were lengthened, the high towering erections at the bow and stern, the forecastles, quarter decks, and poops, were reduced in height, the sailing qualities of the ships being increased thereby ; so that gradually the comparatively elegant and swift-sailing lines of the present men-of-war came to be adopted. Instead of increasing the number of guns to these larger ships, the calibre was increased, and so were the weight and length of each gun, in order to admit of the use of full charges, and to secure the greatest point-blank range, so as to allow the fire to be opened at long distances. The small calibres below 24 Ibs. disappeared from the larger vessels, and the remaining calibres were simplified, so as to have no more than two calibres, or at the outside three, on board of any one vessel. In ships of the line, the lower deck, being the strongest, was armed with guns of the same calibre as the upper decks, but of greater length and weight, in order to have at least one tier of guns avail- able for the greatest possible range. About 1820 the French Gen. Paixhans made an inven- tion which has been of great importance in naval armaments. He constructed a gun of large calibre provided with a chamber at the breech for the insertion of the powder, and be- gan to fire hollow shot, at low elevations, from these " shell guns " (canons obusiers). Hither-