The Sailing Frigate. Robert Gardiner
Acknowledgements
Doug McCarthy and Emma Lefley of the National Maritime Museum’s Picture Library handled the large and complex photo orders for this book with efficiency and courtesy, while Josh Akin made a great job of the demanding scanning requirements.
On the curatorial front, the author is grateful to Simon Stephens for access to models in the Museum’s store, while Jeremy Michell and Andrew Choong of the Brass Foundry were very helpful with background research on the Admiralty Collection of draughts.
Finally, we must thank Major Grant Walker for permission to reproduce photographs of models in the US Naval Academy Museum that have no parallel in any other collection.
References
Footnotes have been avoided in this book, but for readers interested in pursuing the subject in more detail, there is a file of additional information, sources for quotations and the like, available on the Seaforth Publishing website at: http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Sailing-Frigate/p/3699/
Further details of all the National Maritime Museum’s ship models can be found on their Collections website at: http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;collectionReference=subject-90254;authority=subject-90254
Searching by the SLR number quoted in the captions to this book will turn up a description of the model and any available photographs.
Copyright © Robert Gardiner 2012
First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Seaforth Publishing
An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street, Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2AS
Email [email protected]
The right of Robert Gardiner to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published and distributed in the United States of America and Canada by Naval Institute Press
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First Naval Institute Press eBook edition published in 2015.
ISBN 978-1-61251-947-0 (eBook)
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Contents
1: PREHISTORY 1600-1689
Lord Torrington’s Specification
2: GUERRE DE COURSE 1689-1713
3: THE ESTABLISHMENT ERA 1706-1748
The Frigate about 1720
Development of the Stern in Establishment Sixth Rates
4: THE ‘TRUE FRIGATE’ 1748-1778
Development of the Head
The Frigate about 1760
Structure
5: THE HEAVY FRIGATE 1778-1815
Coppering and Carronades
The Frigate about 1795
Filling in the Waist
Ship’s Boats
Sweeps and Sweep Ports
6: THE LAST GENERATION 1815-1850
The Frigate about 1825
Round and Elliptical Sterns
Inside a Frigate
POSTSCRIPT
FURTHER READING
Over the centuries the term ‘frigate’ has carried a myriad of meanings, more often vague and suggestive rather than denoting a specific ship-type. The word itself is of Mediterranean provenance, and it is a reasonable assumption that the first vessels in northern Europe to be so described had the same origins: certainly, the first documented examples are privateers that operated out of the Spanish-held areas of the Netherlands as early as the 1590s. These were small, fast and lightly armed, characteristics that were to remain a common denominator of just about any ship called a ‘frigate’ whenever and wherever the description was applied.
To track the long and convoluted history of the term is more relevant to the lexicographer than the naval historian, and the aim of this book is to follow the evolution of a concept – a specialist cruising warship, not intended to fight in the line of battle but powerful enough for independent action in virtually every other naval role, in all weathers and on any ocean. These would encompass reconnaissance and other fleet support functions, both the attack and defence of trade, blockade and inshore operations, patrolling sea-lanes and suppressing piracy and smuggling. By the Nelson era the frigate had become the navy’s maid-of-all-work, the most flexible and broadly useful ship-type in the fleet and (with the exception of small craft) the most numerous category on the navy list.
SLR0368 On the basis of its decorative scheme this model is usually dated to just after 1660. ‘The Shearnes’ is painted on the upper counter, but there is no warship of that name, nor any built at Sheerness, that would fit. However, the model has the layout, proportions and, at 1/48th scale, roughly the dimensions of the first Parliamentary frigates, with the long heavily raked stem that was a feature of the time. The model carries a small poop and royalist decorations, but, like the full-size prototype, a model could be modified in the course of its life – and in 1660 republican symbolism was being removed throughout the country, from pub signs to warship names, to demonstrate loyalty to the newly restored King Charles II.
Note: The SLR number is the Museum’s unique object reference. As most of the models have no names, it has been used throughout this book for unambiguous identification. For the few models from Annapolis, the HHR number performs the same function.
It was not always so. In order to fulfil all these functions the frigate needed speed, seakeeping, manoeuvrability, structural strength, firepower and a large capacity (in order to stow sufficient provisions for long cruising range). This was a demanding set of requirements, many of