The Frigates.

   21^st October 2005 marked the two hundredth anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar.    Of the British sailing fleet, at that time 221 ships, only one survives to bear witness to the reality of those times; that ship was Nelson’s flagship - Victory.

  Whilst ships of the line fought the big decisive battles, and took all the glory, in reality it was the smaller Frigates that did most of the work and eventually won the sea conflict.   Frigates were war ships in excess of 250 tons.   They came of age during the Napoleonic wars.   Sailing ships with three masts, classed by the admiralty as fifth rate, they were faster than the third rated ships of the line; 74’s.   They would engage with any ship they could outrun, being the eyes and ears of the fleet.   They carried dispatches and retransmitted signals from one ship of the line to another.   They sailed singly and in small squadrons, they were sent all over the world, to attack enemy shipping to hunt down privateers and protect allied shipping.   Despite Britain’s pre-eminence as a maritime nation the French actually built the better ships; they were larger and faster.   The British fleet at the start of the war became, of necessity, significantly different in makeup, towards the end of the hostilities:  

                    1793              Ships of the fleet                                  1815

                       14   1^st rate 98 to 120 guns, 3 deck ships of the line    12

                       71   3^rd rate 64 to  88 guns, 2 deck ships of the line     87

                       78   5^th rate 32 to  46 guns,  1 decked Frigates          122

                     163             Total number of ships in the fleet               221

   After 1793 all new British frigates were built on the lines of captured French vessels.

A Frigate could sail for six months without taking on provisions and could reach anywhere in the known world.   A 38 gunner was 150ft x 40ft weighed 1060 tones and had a crew of 277 officers, men, and boys.  

   Engagement tactics were simple – protagonists contrived to get athwart the enemies stern, where their broadside could rake the whole length of the enemy vessel with only two to four guns being able to reply.   However they invariably ended up side by side, 50 yards apart, swapping cannonades.   The British fired low, on the downward roll of the ship, in an attempt to dismount the guns and kill the crew.   The French fired high on the upward roll, aiming at the rigging, to disable the sail power.   They then employed cannonades, musketry, and boarding with superior numbers.   On the whole, the British tactics proved more effective – the French casualties were heavier and in a one to one fight between vessels of equal power the French usually lost.   During the twenty two years of conflict the British lost 17 frigates to the French (of which 9 were recaptured).   The French lost 229 Frigates to the British.   Very few were sunk – it’s difficult to sink a wooden ship with above water bombardment but many were run aground.

.-…-.

   There was always an element of risk when going to sea, from the weather, diseases, and warfare.   You may be surprised to learn that over 50% of deaths at sea resulted from scurvy and other diseases.   40% were attributed to hazards of the sea – shipwreck, fire, explosion, falls from the rigging, and accidents whilst drunk.   Fatalities in action, on Frigates, amounted to only 5% of the total deaths.

   A military life, at sea or on land, was always precarious.   During two years of operations, in the West Indies, the British Army lost 20 times the number of men killed at the battle of Waterloo - to yellow fever alone.

[Reference and further information – The Frigates Jas Henderson 1998]