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Articles: Warship, Naval warfare. Another great find from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. It's like an anatomy chart for 18th century warships. The image could probably handle a little more cleanup, but as it stands, it's a highly detailed and informative diagram. Nominate and support. - BRIAN 0918 07:19, 19 March 2006 (UTC) Support. See below!
In the 17th century fleets could consist of almost a hundred ships of various sizes, but by the middle of the 18th century, ship-of-the-line design had settled on a few standard types: older two-deckers (i.e., with two complete decks of guns firing through side ports) of 50 guns (which were too weak for the battle line but could be used to ...
In the mid 18th-century, the definition was formally established based on ship size, armament, and crew size. [ 1 ] With the advent of steam assisted and steam powered vessels, the term "Sixth-rate" was replaced by "Sloop" as an official type of ship in the Royal Navy.
A term used for warships of many sizes and roles over the past few centuries Galleass A sailing and rowing warship, equally well suited to sailing and rowing Galleon A sixteenth century sailing warship Galley A warship propelled by oars with a sail for use in a favourable wind Galliot Name refers to several types of sailing vessel, usually two ...
Over time the hoy evolved in terms of its design and use. In the fifteenth century a hoy might be a small spritsail-rigged warship like a cromster. Like the earlier forms of the French chaloupe, it could be a heavy and unseaworthy harbour boat or a small coastal sailing vessel (latterly, the chaloupe was a pulling cutter – nowadays motorized).
The design was considered a good balance between firepower and sailing qualities. Hundreds of seventy-fours were constructed, becoming the dominant form of ship-of-the-line. They remained the mainstay of most major fleets into the early 19th century. From the 1820s, they began to be replaced by larger two-decked ships mounting more guns.
A sloop-of-war was quite different from a civilian or mercantile sloop, which was a general term for a single-masted vessel rigged in a way that would today be called a gaff cutter (but usually without the square topsails then carried by cutter-rigged vessels), though some sloops of that type did serve in the 18th century British Royal Navy, particularly on the Great Lakes of North America.
Britain had a far larger ocean trade than any of her main enemies, and a much bigger reserve of professional seamen from which to man warships. Throughout the 18th century the French and, particularly, the Spanish navy suffered from serious manning difficulties and were often forced to complete the ships' crews with soldiers or landsmen.