There was, however, one part of the Constant-Warwick's peculiarity of construction that could not be altered, without a complete rebuild from the keel upwards: it was the sharpness of her lower body, or, as the naval draughtsman would call it, the fineness of her lines. This sharpness of form appears to have been the only characteristic of the frigate which the English builders thought worthy to be retained. It seemed to them a most convenient property, that suited all sizes and classes of ships; and, accordingly, between the years 1646 and 1653, upwards of 60 "frigates" were built, or building. One, among the latter, was to carry "from 50 to 80 guns." The, remainder were variously classed, from 56 down to 12 guns; and the first was the only rate, from which they appear to have been excluded.
One natural effect of this extraordinary degree of sharpness, when applied to an overloaded ship carrying 60 or 70 guns, was so to increase the immersion of the vessel, that her lower battery approached too near to the water to be useful. This evil we shall explain in the words of Mr. Pepys. "In 1663 and 1664," says he, "the Dutch and French built ships with two decks, which carried from 60 to 70 guns, and so contrived, that they carried their lower guns four feet from the water, and to stow four months' provisions ; whereas, our frigates, from the Dunkirk-built, which were narrower and sharper, carried their guns but little more than three feet from the water, and but ten weeks' provisions." * Mr. Pepys then states, that five frigates (three of 70, one of 66, and one of 64 guns, according to the list of 1677 †) were ordered to be built of such dimensions, as to obviate those defects. In eight or ten years afterwards, we find Mr. Pepys still complaining of this want of buoyancy in the British frigates ; as appears by another of his statements, already quoted to illustrate a point in our inquiries. ‡
Thus had the "first frigate," in less than 20 years, spread her name, if not her qualifications, over nearly the whole of the British navy. From the time, however, that the first and second rates excluded all two-decked ships, as was certainly the case at the date of the abstract of 1677, § and may have been the case a year or two earlier, the frigate-classes were confined to the third, and the three inferior rates. When, too, at the close of the seventeenth century, the classes within the first four rates assumed the name of line-of-battle-ships, ¶ the frigate became further restricted to the fifth and sixth rates; which, as the fifth-rate by the new regulation, was confined to classes below the 50-gun ship, afforded but a very limited range. So that, by the year 1727, as already shown, the frigate-classes were reduced to three, the 40, the 30, and the 20 gun ship.
Our next object is to show, to a certain extent, what classes. have
* Derrick, p. 84.
‡ See p. 14.
§ See p. 7.
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