Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/196

 188 NAVY POSITION. DESCRIPTION. W'ght. Length. No. Cwt. Ft. In. Lower deck 8-inch shell guns. 65 9 4 tb - U 32-pdr. guns 56 9 6 28 Middle deck 8-inch shell guns. 65 9 2 Upper deck Forecastle and | 32-pdr. guns 50 42 45 9 8 8 6 82 34 6 quarter deck [ " carronades 17 4 14 Total 120 The armament of the smaller ratings of vessels of the line was arranged upon the same princi- ple. For the sake of comparison, we also give that of a French first rate, viz. : lower deck, 32 long 30-lb. guns ; middle deck, 4 80-lb. shell guns, and 30 short 30-lb. guns; upper deck, 34 30-lb. shell guns; forecastle and quarter deck, 4 30-lb. shell guns, and 16 30-lb. car- ronades ; in all, 120 guns. The French 80-lb. shell gun has a larger bore than the 8-inch English gun by 0'8 inch; the 30-lb. shell gun and the 30-lb. gun have a slightly larger bore than the English 32-pdr., so that the advan- tage of weight of metal would lie with the French. The smallest ship of the line carried 72 guns; the largest frigate carried 61. 2. A frigate is a ship with only one covered deck carrying guns, and another open deck above it (forecastle and quarter deck), which is equally U. 8. Sailing Frigate Constitution. provided with guns. The armament, in the English service, was generally of 30 guns (either all shell guns or part shell guns and part long 32-pdrs.) on the gun deck, and 30 short 32-pdrs. on the forecastle and quarter deck, with a heavy pivot 'gun on a traversing platform at the bow. Frigates being mostly sent on detached service, where they were always likely to become engaged single-hand- ed against hostile frigates sent on the same errand, it was a great point with most naval nations to make them as large and powerful as possible. In no class of vessels is the increase in size so remarkable as in this. The United States, requiring a cheap navy strong enough to enforce respect, were the first to see the great advantage to be drawn from a fleet of large frigates, each of them superior to any frigate which other nations could bring against it. The superiority of the American ship builders in producing swift vessels was also taken advantage of, and the last war against England (1812-'15) showed in many well con- tested engagements what formidable antago- nists these American frigates were. They were considered models of this class of vessels. The names frigate and corvette or sloop have been retained in the navies of the present day. 3. The next class of men-of-war was called corvettes. They had but one tier of guns, placed on an open deck ; but the larger class was provided with a forecastle and quarter deck (not connected however by a continuous deck amidships), where they carried a few guns more. Such corvettes, therefore, almost cor- responded to what a frigate was 100 years ago, before the two elevated extremities of the ves- sel were connected by a flush deck. These corvettes were strong enough to carry the same calibre of guns as the larger ves- sels. They also carried three masts, all square- rigged. Corvettes are also called sloops of war. 4. Of small- er vessels, brigs and schooners carried from 20 guns to 6. They had but two masts, square-rigged in brigs, fore-and-aft rigged in schooners. The cali- bre of their guns was necessarily smaller than that of the larger ships, and did not generally exceed 18- or 24-pdrs., going down as low a^ 12- and 9-pdrs. Ves- sels of this small powel of offence could not be sent where seri- ous resistance was anticipated. In European waters they have been superseded by small steamers, and they could have been of actual service only on such coasts as those of South America, China, &c., where they had to meet powerless antagonists, and where they mere-