Ship ratings

[corsair91]

Super-dreadnoughts

Within five years of the commissioning of Dreadnought, a new generation of more powerful "super-dreadnoughts" was being built. The British Orion class jumped an unprecedented 2,000-tons in displacement, introduced the heavier 13.5-inch (343 mm) gun, and placed all the main armament on the centreline (with some turrets superfiring over others). In the four years between Dreadnought and Orion, displacement had increased by 25%, and weight of broadside (the weight of ammunition that can be fired on a single bearing in one salvo) had doubled.



Orion-class battleship

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion-class_battleship

The Orion-class battleships were a group of four dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the early 1910s. The first 13.5-inch-gunned (343 mm) battleships built for the RN, they were much larger than the preceding British dreadnoughts and were sometimes termed "super-dreadnought"s.


Later British super-dreadnoughts, principally the Queen Elizabeth class, dispensed with the midships turret, freeing weight and volume for larger, oil-fired boilers. The new 15-inch (381-mm) gun gave greater firepower in spite of the loss of a turret, and there were a thicker armour belt and improved underwater protection. The class had a 25-knot (46-km/h - 28.5 mph) design speed, and they were considered the first fast battleships.


Queen Elizabeth-class battleship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth-class_battleship

The Queen Elizabeths are generally considered the first fast battleships in their day and served in both world wars.


Fast battleship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_battleship

A fast battleship was a battleship which emphasised speed without in concept an undue compromise of either armor or armament.

Fast battleships effectively replaced the battlecruiser concept
as combined a traditional Battleship and battlecruiser features
and could perform both roles.


America's 1st Super Dreadnought
or US Navy "standard-type" battleship

USS Nevada (BB-36)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nevada_(BB-36)


The Incredible Battleship Nevada
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io038KRcw1I


USS Nevada - Guide 041
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocFZxK7jLcA


From Pearl Harbor to the Normandy Invasion: the USS Nevada's Forgotten History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nvq9n_QUZY

The USS Nevada was the only battleship to be at both the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the Normandy D-Day Invasion

[corsair91]

Ironclad warship

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironclad_warship

An ironclad is a steam-propelled warship protected by iron or steel armor plates used in the early part of the second half of the 19th century.
The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells.

The era of the wooden steam ship-of-the-line was brief, because of new, more powerful naval guns firing explosive shells.

The first ironclad battleship, Gloire, was launched by the French Navy in November 1859.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ironclad_Gloire

The British reponded with two Warrior-class ironclads; HMS Warrior and HMS Black Prince.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Warrior_(1860)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Black_Prince_(1861)


After the first battle between Ironclads: CSS Virginia vs USS Monitor, in the March 1862 Battle of Hampton Roads in the American Civil War.

CSS Virginia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Virginia

USS Monitor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Monitor

It became clear that the Ironclad had replaced the unarmored ship of the line as the most powerful warship afloat.

Towards the end of the 1890s the term ironclad dropped out of use, the descriptions 'battleship' and 'armored cruiser' came to replace the term 'ironclad'.

The armament of ironclads tended to become concentrated in a small number of powerful guns capable of penetrating the armor of enemy ships at range.

Ironclads were initially typically Broadside Ironclads but replaced by Turrets, and Rams then gave way to Torpedos. Iron was replaced by Steel.


List of ironclads of the Royal Navy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ironclads_of_the_Royal_Navy


HMS Royal Sovereign (1857)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_Sovereign_(1857)

originally laid down as a 121-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.
With the rise of steam and screw propulsion, she was ordered to be converted on the stocks to a 131-gun screw ship,
with conversion beginning on 25 January 1855.

Selected for later conversion into an experimental turret ship and the first British turret-armed ship, and the only one with a wooden hull.


HMS Captain (1869)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Captain_(1869)

An unsuccessful warship built for the Royal Navy due to public pressure. She was a masted turret ship and notoriously unstable.

The Captain was completed in April 1870 and capsized in September 1870 because of design and construction errors.

HMS Captain - Guide 079
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NofUhqh-S7U&list=PLMK9a-vDE5zHLHi5-QcDF6f4bI5hD2qaK&index=43
Drachinifel

The HMS Captain, an ironclad of the Royal Navy




USS New Ironsides (1862)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_New_Ironsides

wooden-hulled broadside ironclad,
essentially a copy of the French Gloire

[corsair91]

Clipper

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper

A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing ship, designed for speed. Developed from a type of schooner known as Baltimore clippers, clipper ships had three masts and a square rig.

Amongst the fastest saling ships ever built.

The fast ships were ideally suited to low-volume, high-profit goods, such as tea, opium, spices, people, and mail.
The last China clippers were acknowledged as the fastest sail vessels. When fully rigged and riding a tradewind, they had peak average speeds over 16 knots (30 km/h).

Donald McKay's Sovereign of the Seas reported the highest speed ever achieved by a sailing ship – 22 knots (41 km/h), made while running her easting down to Australia in 1854.

Sovereign of the Seas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_of_the_Seas_(clipper)


The ships had short expected lifetimes and rarely outlasted two decades of use before they were broken up for salvage.
Given their speed and maneuverability, clippers frequently mounted cannon or carronades and were used for piracy, privateering, smuggling, or interdiction service.

The gradual introduction of the steamships who could better keep to a schedule, eventually replaced the Clippers.
The Suez Canal whch was difficult for sailing ships to use, gave Steamships a shortcut.

List of clipper ships
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_clipper_ships


Cutty Sark (1869)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutty_Sark

One of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest

one of only three remaining original composite construction (wooden hull on an iron frame) clipper ships from the nineteenth century in part or whole, the others being the City of Adelaide, which arrived in Port Adelaide, South Australia on 3 February 2014 for preservation, and the beached skeleton of Ambassador of 1869 near Punta Arenas, Chile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Adelaide_(1864)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_(clipper)

[corsair91]

Windjammer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windjammer

A windjammer is a commercial sailing ship with multiple masts that may be either square rigged or fore-and-aft rigged or a combination of the two. The informal term arose during the transition from the Age of Sail to the Age of Steam.

In the late 19th century, Sailors aboard steamships would refer to sailing vessels as wind-jammers.

Any of the following ships may be called a "windjammer":

Barque
Barquentine
Brig
Brigantine
Clipper ship
Full-rigged ship
Iron-hulled sailing ship
Sail-powered cruise ship
Schooner

[corsair91]

Snow (ship)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_(ship)

Not to be confused with Brig.

In sailing, a snow, snaw or snauw is a square rigged vessel with two masts, complemented by a snow- or trysail-mast stepped immediately abaft (behind) the main mast.

The snow dates back to the late 17th century

The snow was considered a handy and fast sailing vessel, typically the largest two masted vessel around and was employed in both navy and merchant service.

When used as a military vessel, snows were, in the early 18th century, typically fitted with 5 to 16 guns.

Military snows were mostly used for coastal patrols and privateering, while in the merchant service, snows traded all the way to the Mediterranean and sometimes even sailed as far as the West Indies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privateer


Quote:

Snow: the largest of all old two-masted vessels.
The sails and rigging on the main mast of a snow are exactly similar to those on the same masts in a full-rigged ship;
only that there is a small mast behind the mainmast of the former, which carries a sail nearly resembling the mizzen of a ship.
Captain Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates


While the snow and the brig might appear closely related, this is in fact not the case.
The two rigs developed from different directions, the brig evolving from the generally smaller brigantine,
and the much older snow evolving from the larger three-masted ship.

The most visible difference between the brig and the snow is in the latter's "snow-mast", stepped directly behind the main mast.
In contrast to the brig, where the gaff and boom attach directly to the main mast, a snow's gaff, and in later times its boom, were attached to the snow-mast. The use of this characteristic snow-mast offered several advantages over attaching the gaff directly to the main mast.

The yoke (or jaw) of the gaff and the lacing of the gaff sail on a snow could move freely on the snow mast, not hindered by the iron bands that held together the (main) mast, nor limited by the main yard. As a result of the latter, the gaff could be raised higher than the main yard and independently of it. The resulting freedom allowed a snow, in contrast to the brigs, to fly a main course without complications, as they typically did.

However, in the late 18th century, brigs started to set main courses as well, which gave rise to the term snow-brig. The differences lessened even further when the snow-mast was replaced by a steel cable, at which point the term "snow-brig" gradually became interchangeable with the term "brig" and the term "snow" fell in disuse.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigantine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brig

[corsair91]

Sail training

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sail_training

By 1900 most commercial sailing vessels were struggling to turn a profit in the face of competition from more modern steam ships which had become efficient enough to steam shorter great circle routes between ports instead of the longer trade wind routes used by sailing ships.

Ships were built larger to carry bulk cargoes more efficiently, their rigs were simplified to reduce manning costs and speed was no longer a premium. Owners shipped cargoes that were non-perishable so that their date of arrival (which steam ships had started to guarantee) were of less importance. Finally as the Panama Canal was opened, sailing ships were used in parts of the world where steam ships still found it hard to operate: principally on

the Chilean nitrate trade (for fertilizers and explosive production in Europe), and on
the Australian grain trade.

Both Chile and Australian ports were difficult to supply with coal for steamships to refuel. Also, both routes to Europe went round Cape Horn.

The end of the First World War saw a brief return to profitability as all ship types were in scarce supply due to wartime losses but that boom became bust as many new steam ships were built to replace the sailing ships that were lost.

Many countries of the world operated sailing ships as training vessels for officers in their Merchant Marine in the 1920s and 30s

Square rigged seamanship was in danger of becoming a lost art.
As the 1997 restoration of the USS Constitution neared completion, the United States Navy called on the crew of HMS Bounty Replica Ship
to train her sailors to sail the vessel as originally intended.

Tall ships have been found to be effective platforms for sail training as they combine many elements fundamental to sail training.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Training_ship

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_ship

A tall ship is a large, traditionally-rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques

[corsair91]

Frigates

List of Frigate classes of the Royal Navy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_frigate_classes_of_the_Royal_Navy

All frigates built for the Royal Navy up to 1877
(when the Admiralty re-categorised all frigates and corvettes as "cruisers")

In 1877 all frigates and corvettes in the British Navy were re-categorised as 'cruisers', and the term 'frigate' was abolished, not to re-emerge until the Second World War, at which time it was resurrected to describe a totally different type of escort vessel.


Cruisers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruiser_classes_of_the_Royal_Navy

List of cruisers of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom from 1877 (when the category was created by amalgamating the two previous categories of frigate and corvette) until the last cruiser was decommissioned more than a century later in 1979.

The very last ever Royal Navy Cruiser was probably

HMS Blake (C99)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Blake_(C99)



Some selected Frigate ships, to give an overview

see the List above for the early Frigates

HMS Flora 1780
First Royal Navy 18-pounder armed frigate


24-pounder armed frigates

1794 razees 44-gun (converted from 64-gun ships of the line in 1794)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1794_razees

HMS Indefatigable converted 1794
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Indefatigable_(1784)

HMS Anson converted 1794
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Anson_(1781)

HMS Magnanime converted 1794
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Magnanime_(1780)


HMS Endymion 40 guns 1797; later classed as 50-gun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Endymion_(1797)

Famous for her battle with USS President on 15 January 1815, in which she caught the American frigate and crippled her. 24 pound shot went clean through the hull.

Endymion was known as the fastest sailing-ship in the Royal Navy during the Age of Sail, logging 14.4 knots (26.7 km/h) sailing large, and nearly 11.0 knots (20.4 km/h) close-hauled.

Throughout her career, Endymion was praised for her remarkable sailing qualities. She was therefore a highly desirable command for frigate captains. Even in the 1830s, long after her war service, she was regarded as the benchmark for Royal Navy frigates. When in company with much newer ships, she was still capable of outsailing them.


Endymion class 40-gun (later classed as 50-gun) "fir-built" (actually pitch pine-built) fifth rates 1813–14
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endymion_class_frigate


HMS Leander 50-gun (later 60-gun) fourth rate 1813; designed by William Rule - broken up 1830
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Leander_(1813)

HMS Newcastle 50-gun (later 60-gun) fourth rate 1813; design by Jean-Louis Barrallier - hulked 1824, no records after 1827
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Newcastle_(1813)


HMS President 52-gun (later 60-gun) fourth rate 1829; built to the lines of the USS President (captured 1814) - hulked as Royal Navy Reserve training ship 1861, renamed Old President and then sold 1903
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_President_(1829)

[corsair91]

Frigates continued


32-pounder armed frigates
razees 56-gun (converted from 74-gun ships of the line)

HMS Goliath converted 1813
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Goliath_(1781)

HMS Saturn converted 1813
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Saturn_(1786)

HMS Majestic converted 1813
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Majestic_(1785)

HMS Elephant converted 1817–18
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Elephant_(1786)

HMS Excellent conversion began 1825
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Excellent_(1787)


The following three classes were begun as sailing frigates, but all were completed as screw-driven steam frigates.

Emerald class 50-gun fourth rates, ordered 1848.
San Fiorenzo class 50-gun fourth rates, ordered 1848.
Narcissus class 50-gun fourth rates, ordered 1848.


19th century steam frigates

Steam frigate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_frigate


all these early steam vessels still carried a full rig of masts and sails, and that steam power remained a means of assistance to these vessels.

Between 1839-1850 a small number of paddle-driven Frigates were built, almost all the paddle frigates were wooden-hulled.

Later on the invention of screw propulsion enabled construction of steam-powered versions of the traditional frigates, corvettes, and sloops.

Almost all the screw frigates below were wooden-hulled.
The Admiralty had concerns then about the ability of iron hulls to stand up to combat conditions and later changed to Steel hulls in 1877.

A number of sail frigates were adapted, while during the 1850s the first frigates designed from the start to have screw propulsion were ordered
and still carried a full rig of masts and sails.


HMS Amphion 1846 - the prototype screw frigate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Amphion_(1846)


HMS Arrogant 1848 - first class
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Arrogant_(1848)


HMS Endymion 1865
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Endymion_(1865)
One of the last wooden frigates

Frigate names were routinely re-used.


HMS Inconstant (1868) iron-hulled frigate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Inconstant_(1868)

An unarmored, iron-hulled, screw frigate built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s.

Upon completion in 1869, she was the fastest warship in the world, in Sea Trials reached a speed of 16.2 knots (30.0 km/h; 18.6 mph)

Inconstant was ship-rigged with three masts and proved to be excellent under sail, reaching a maximum speed of 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph), one of only two warships ever to reach this speed under sail and 16 knots with steam.

To improve her performance under sail, her propeller could be hoisted into the hull and her funnels lowered to reduce drag.

When completed the ship was more heavily armed than all but two of the twenty-four British ironclads afloat.

Inconstant's main armament consisted of ten rifled muzzle-loading (RML) 9-inch (229 mm) guns on the main deck in the traditional broadside layout. The 9-inch shells weighed 254 pounds (115.2 kg) and was rated with the ability to penetrate 11.3 inches (287 mm) of wrought-iron armour.

Her secondary armament of six RML 7-inch (178 mm) guns was mounted on the upper deck, with two guns positioned in the bow as chase guns. The guns fired a 112-pound (51 kg) shell that could pierce 7.7 inches (196 mm) of armour.

[corsair91]

Seventy-four Ship of the line

Seventy-four (ship)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventy-four_(ship)

The "seventy-four" was a type of two-decked sailing ship of the line which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s and spread to the British Royal Navy where it was classed as third rate. From here, it spread to the Spanish, Dutch, Danish and Russian navies. The design was considered a good balance between firepower and sailing qualities, but more importantly, it was an appealing ideal for naval administrators and bureaucrats. Seventy-fours became a mainstay of the world's fleets into the early 19th century when they began to be supplanted by new designs and by the introduction of steam powered ironclads.

The first 74-gun ships were constructed by the French as they rebuilt their navy during the early years of the reign of Louis XV. The new ship type was a very large two-decker big enough to carry the largest common type of gun (36-pounders) on the lower gun deck, something only three-deckers had done earlier.

This great firepower was combined with very good sailing qualities compared to both the taller three-deckers and the shorter old-style 70-gun two-deckers, making the 74 the perfect combination of the two. A disadvantage of the 74 was that it was relatively expensive to build and man compared to the older type of two-decker.

Armament:

28 24-36-pounders
28 30 x 18-24-pounders
14 18 x 6-12-pounders


The significance of the 74s however is hard to overstate, as a summary of the ships of the line for all nations that were in commission at any time during the Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars period.

1st & 2nd rates (130-90 guns) 156
3rd rate 74s (70-90 guns) 408
4th rate (60-68 guns) 199


The Royal Navy captured a number of the early French 74-gun ships during the War of the Austrian Succession and was greatly impressed by them compared to its own smallish 70-gun ships. As a result, it started building them in great numbers from about 1760, as did most other navies.

Navies that were restricted by shallow waters, such as the Dutch and Scandinavian navies, at least early on tended to avoid the 74-gun ship to a certain degree due to its size and draught, preferring smaller two-deckers instead. Even so, the seventy-four was a standard feature in all European navies around 1800. Only a handful of 74-gun ships were commissioned into the United States Navy; the US Navy's early sea power concentrated on its frigates.

The type fell into disuse after the Napoleonic Wars, when improved building techniques made it possible to build even bigger two-deckers of 84 or even 90 guns without sacrificing hull rigidity.




Vengeur-class ship of the line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vengeur-class_ship_of_the_line

The Vengeur-class ships of the line were a class of forty 74-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy and was the most numerous class of ships of the line ever built for the Royal Navy - forty ships being completed to this design.
Due to some dubious practices, primarily in the commercial dockyards used for construction, this class of ships earned itself the nickname of 'Forty Thieves.'

Between 1826 and 1832, ten of these ships were cut down by one deck (raseed) to produce 50-gun "frigates".

Armament:

74 guns:
Gundeck: 28 — 32 pdrs
Upper gundeck: 28 — 18 pdrs
Quarterdeck: 4 — 12 pdrs, 10 — 32 pdr carronades
Forecastle: 2 — 12 pdrs, 2 — 32 pdr carronades
Poop deck: 6 — 18 pdr carronades




Téméraire class French ship of the line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A9m%C3%A9raire-class_ship_of_the_line

The Téméraire class ship of the line were a class of a hundred and twenty 74-gun ships of the line ordered between 1782 and 1813 for the French navy or its attached navies in dependent (French-occupied) territories. Although a few of these were cancelled, the type was and remains the most numerous class of capital ship ever built to a single design.

The design was appreciated in Britain, which eagerly commissioned captured ships and even copied the design with the Pompée and America class.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomp%C3%A9e-class_ship_of_the_line

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America-class_ship_of_the_line

Armament:

Main deck: 28 × 36-pounder (French units of weight) (16 kg)
Upper deck: 30 × 18-pounders; two ships were fitted with 24-pounders instead of 18-pounders on this deck
Forecastle and sterncastle:
16 × 8-pounders
4 × 36 pdr (16 kg) carronades

[corsair91]

An example of of a paddle frigate.


USS Powhatan (1850)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Powhatan_(1850)

The first USS Powhatan was a sidewheel steam frigate in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
She was one of the last, and largest, of the United States Navy's paddle frigates.

Armament:

1 — 11 in (280 mm) Dahlgren smoothbore gun
10 — 9 in (230 mm) Dahlgren smoothbore guns
5 — 12-pounder guns (5.4 kg)

[corsair91]

Examples of Screw Ships


HMS Rattler (1843)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Rattler_(1843)

HMS Rattler was a 9-gun wooden sloop of war of the Royal Navy and the first British warship to adopt a screw propeller powered by a steam engine. She was arguably the first such warship in the world—the sloop USS Princeton was launched after Rattler, but was placed in commission much sooner.

Screw propulsion had some obvious potential advantages for warships over paddle propulsion. Firstly, paddlewheels were exposed to enemy fire in combat, whereas a propeller and its machinery were tucked away safely well below deck. Secondly, the space taken up by paddlewheels restricted the number of guns a warship could carry, thus reducing its broadside. These potential advantages were well understood by the British Admiralty, but it was not convinced that the propeller was an effective propulsion system. It was only in 1840, when the world's first propeller-driven steamship, SS Archimedes, successfully completed a series of trials against fast paddle-wheelers, that the Navy decided to conduct further tests of the technology. For this purpose, the Navy built Rattler.



USS Princeton (1843)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Princeton_(1843)

The first USS Princeton was a screw steam warship in the United States Navy.
The designer of the ship and main supervisor of construction was the Swedish inventor John Ericsson, who later designed USS Monitor.

Princeton was the first ship with first screw propellers powered by an engine mounted entirely below the waterline to protect them from gunfire.

[corsair91]

Naval artillery in the Age of Sail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_artillery_in_the_Age_of_Sail

One descriptive characteristic which was commonly used was to define guns by their pound rating

Common sizes were 42-pounders, 36-pounders, 32-pounders, 24-pounders, 18-pounders, 12-pounders, 9-pounders, 8-pounders, 6-pounders, and various smaller calibres.

French ships used standardized guns of 36-pound, 24-pound, 18-pound, 12-pound, and 8-pound calibers, augmented by carronades and smaller pieces.
Later the 36-pounder was replaced by 30-pounders for New Ship construction.

In general, larger ships carrying more guns carried larger ones as well.



Long nine

One unique naval gun was the long nine. It was a proportionately longer-barrelled 9-pounder. It was typically mounted as a bow or stern chaser where it was not perpendicular to the keel, and this also allowed room to operate this longer weapon. In a chase situation, the gun's greater range came into play. However, the desire to reduce weight in the ends of the ship and the relative fragility of the bow and stern portions of the hull limited this role to a 9-pounder, rather than one which used a 12- or 24-pound shot.



12-pounder long gun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12-pounder_long_gun

The 12-pounder long gun was an intermediary calibre piece of artillery mounted on warships of the Age of sail. They were used as main guns on the most typical frigates of the early 18th century, on the second deck of fourth-rate ships of the line, and on the upper decks or castles of 80-gun and 120-gun ships of the line.

As the 12-pounder calibre was consistent with both the French and the British calibre systems, it was a widespread gun amongst nations between the 17th and the 19th century. From the late 18th Century, the French Navy used the 12-pounder in three capacities: as main gun on early frigates under Louis XIV, on standard frigates under Louis XV and on light frigates under Louis XVI; as secondary artillery on 64-gun ships; to arm the castles of 80-gun ships of the line; and to equip the third deck of early first-rate ships.

On 64-gun two-deckers, the 12-gun was used as secondary artillery, to supplement the 24-pounder main batteries. 28 guns were carried on the top gun-deck.



18-pounder long gun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18-pounder_long_gun

The 18-pounder long gun was an intermediary calibre piece of artillery mounted on warships of the Age of sail. They were used as main guns on the most typical frigates of the early 19th century, on the second deck of third-rate ships of the line, and even on the third deck of late first-rate ships of the line.

As the 18-pounder calibre was consistent with both the French and the British calibre systems, it was used in many European navies between the 17th and the 19th century.

It was a heavy calibre for early ships of the line, arming, for instance, the main batteries of Couronne in 1636. From the late 18th century, the French Navy used the 18-pounder in three capacities: as the main gun on frigates, as the battery on the upper gundeck of two-deckers, and lastly on the top deck of three-deckers.

French ship Couronne (1636)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Couronne_(1636)

Lower battery 22 18-pounder long guns

[corsair91]

24-pounder long gun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24-pounder_long_gun

The 24-pounder long gun was a heavy calibre piece of artillery mounted on warships of the Age of sail, second only to the 36-pounder long gun. 24-pounders were in service in the navies of France, Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States.

24-pounders were used as main guns on the heaviest frigates of the early 19th century and on fourth-rate ships of the line, on the second deck of first-rate ships of the line, and on the second deck of a few large third-rates.

As the 24-pounder calibre was consistent with both the French and the British calibre systems, it was a widespread gun amongst nations between the 17th and the 19th century.


Under Louis XV, a typical heavy frigate would carry 12-pounder long guns until 1772, when the two vessels of the Pourvoyeuse class were built to carry 24-pounders; these proved too heavy in practical use, however, and the vessels were re-equipped with 18-pounders, heralding the coming of the 18-pounder frigate that would become the standard in many navies of the late 18th century.


Pourvoyeuse-class frigate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pourvoyeuse-class_frigate

The Pourvoyeuse class was a type of heavy frigates of the French Navy, designed in the 1770s
They constituted one of the earliest attempts at building a frigate armed with 24-pounders on the artillery deck, rather than the 18-pounders typical of the day. The attempt was unfruitful, and the ships were commissioned armed with old 18-pounders.

Several further such attempts were made later with the Résistance, Forte and Romaine classes. The concept was eventually perfected with the original six frigates of the United States Navy, before becoming moot with the introduction of a different artillery system based on 30-pounder long guns and 30-pounder short guns in the 1820s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9sistance_class_frigate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forte-class_frigate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaine-class_frigate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_six_frigates_of_the_United_States_Navy

[corsair91]

30-pounder French Cannon

ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30-pounder_long_gun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30-pounder_short_gun


The 30-pounder long gun was a large piece of artillery mounted on French warships of the Age of sail. They were the heaviest component of the unified system standardised on the 30-pounder calibre, replacing both the 36-pounder long guns in their usages, and even some 24-pounders.

Installed on the lower deck of the larger warships from the 1820s, the 30-pounder long gun was the largest caliber used in the late Navy of the Age of the Sail



The 30-pounder short gun was a piece of artillery mounted on French warships of the Age of sail. They were the middle-sized component of the unified system standardised on the 30-pounder calibre, replacing both the 24-pounders and 12-pounders in many usages.

The 30-pounder short gun was installed on the lower deck on frigates and on the middle deck of three-deckers, the main battery being armed with 30-pounder long guns and the upper deck, with 30-pounder carronades.

In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, it was decided to standardise on the 30-pound calibre, and deploy a variety of guns of different weights, as not to overload the tops.

The differences in weight were obtained by fielding a large 30-pounder long gun, a shorter 30-pounder with a thinner barrel, and a 30-pounder carronade.
This allowed a much simplified handling of ammunition, and significantly increased the broadsides of warships. A first-rank 60-gun frigate of the 1840s thus armed had a heavier broadside than a 74-gun ship of the line of the 1780s.




32-pounder gun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/32-pounder_gun

The 32-pounder guns (and the French 30-pounders) were sets of heavy-caliber pieces of artillery mounted on warships in the last century of the Age of sail.

Traditionally the caliber of a cannon was a good indication of the effectiveness of a gun. This was not quite true for the 32-pounders of the 1830s and later.

The Royal Navy kept its 32-pounders apart by noting the weight of the piece in hundredweight (cwt). A 32-pounder 56 cwt was a heavy gun for ships of the line. It had a long range, a high chance to hit the target and had a high power of penetration. A 32-pounder 25 cwt fired the same shot, but with less gunpowder. It led to a lower muzzle velocity, lower range and less power of penetration. Because of the lower weight of the piece, the recoil was worse and tended to shake the gun, lowering the chances of hitting the target.

British had light, medium and Heavy 32-pounders

By 1825 the 32-pounder carronade was the only carronade still in general use in the Royal Navy.

[corsair91]

36-pounder French long gun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/36-pounder_long_gun

The 36-pounder long gun was the largest piece of artillery mounted on French warships of the Age of Sail. They were also used for Coastal defence and fortification. They largely exceeded the heaviest guns fielded by the Army, which were 24-pounder long guns.

After the Napoleonic Wars, the 36-pounder long gun remained in use on older warships, though it was largely superseded by the 30-pounder long gun on newer units.

In the Royal Navy, a similar role was fulfilled by 32-pounder long guns.



Attempts to use 48-pounders were made by the French.
The British attempted 42-pounders.

These proved impractical to use on ships, partly because their weight allowed for only a few pieces, and because the heavy balls were unwieldy to load by hand.


French ship Royal Louis (1692)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Royal_Louis_(1692)

Following completion in 1693, the 48-pounder guns on her lower deck were replaced by 36-pounders


Paixhans gun

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paixhans_gun
the first naval gun using explosive shells

The Paixhans gun ultimately doomed the wooden sailship, and forced the introduction of the ironclad after the Battle of Sinop in 1853.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sinop