NOTES TO ABSTRACT No. 25.

a     Whatever remarks may have suggested
themselves upon the eligibility of this plan of reform in a national point of view, will
be found in their proper place in the body of the work. Our present business is
with the details of the system, particularly as they affect that arrangement or
classification of the ships, which is the groundwork of these abstracts.

How to effect the change from one plan of rating to the other, without
disorganizing the particular abstract, into which the new classification, from
the date of its commencement, naturally fell, was long a subject of difficulty. At
length, I decided to arrange the old and new classes in the manner adopted in the
abstract before us, and to remove the ships to their new stations by the pair of
converted columns ; a method that, if not quite so intelligible as could be wished,
possesses the merit of not disturbing, in the slightest degree, the
arithmetical connexion of the figures.

Class A is the same in each rating. B receives the San-Josef, and
parts with the building ships, London and Princess-Charlotte. C takes
the latter, along with the Ocean, and gives up the San-Josef. D
merely parts with the building ship Trafalgar. Old E is extinct. Old F, or new E,
takes the last named ship, and parts with the Ocean, and becomes exalted from
the second to the first rate. Old G is extinct. Old H, or new F, receives, along
with promotion, one ship, the Prince, from the last class but one (old a
and new X) of the abstract. Old K divides into new G and H, comprising the whole of
the second rate; and old L and M distribute themselves into the first five classes
of the third rate, I, K, L, M, and N. Old O is new P ; and old P, by transferring its six individuals to the hospital and receiving ship class, becomes extinct.
It should here be remarked, that the official register of the new rating, as
did that of the old takes no note of the calibers of the guns, or of the size of the
ships : hence, the seven new classes from I to P inclusive, form but three in the admiralty list.

The explanation, just given, of the process of removing the line classes
may suffice, without investigating the remaining classes, further than to point
out where, by the new arrangement, a class is raised above the heads of any other
class or classes. Q, the first new under-line class, is all instance of this,
having formerly rated three classes lower. The strict numerical gun-force is here, indeed,
a little defective ; as the ships of the next, or R class, carrying heavier
metal and being, as well as larger, a full third stronger in frame, ought to take
precedence of the ships of Q.

The comparison made, in a former note, between the Isis in her
intended. and the same ship in her actual state of construction, will best explain,
why a flush ship, of any given number of guns, ought to be classed above, and
not with, a quarter-decked ship of the same number of guns. Thus, R and S 58s, in
the new rating, rank above T 58 ; that is, they do so in the abstract before us.
But, in the official register, where no such distinction is acknowledged, the ships are all
huddled together in one class ; even although the ships of T are established with a
less complement, by 100 men, than those of R or S. It is also worthy of remark, that,
as the quarter-decked ships, now that they have the whole of their guns
enumerated, rank much higher than formerly ; so, except in the case (Q) cited in the last
paragraph, and in any other (old and new R for instance) wherein a pair of
bow-chasers may have been omitted, the flush ships, mounting no additional guns, undergo
no change in their classification. Thus, M and N, from being close neighbours,
separate, the one into Z, the other into D, with three classes intervening.

In the old rating there are 50, and in the new but 42, cruising classes.
According to the official register, however, there should be but 96 of the
latter ; the two classes distinguished by caliber (K and 111), the two by size (O and P),
and the three by decks (S, T, and E), not finding places in it, while a 34-gun
class, of one individual, is added. The reason for excluding the latter from the abstract
will appear in a note to class Z, and that for admitting the whole of the
former has already been stated. It should be mentioned that, when the new regulation was
first adopted, two additional classes, an 82 and a 38, made their appearance in the
list, and several of the ships in the other classes were differently arranged. But,
shortly afterwards, the 82 was incorporated with the 80, and the :38 with the 42 ;
and the other ships became, with the exceptions hereafter to be noticed, classed as
they appear in this abstract.

But besides the classes arranged under the head of " New Rating," the
official list still contained a set of classes of the " Old Rating," such as the
98, the 64, the 50, the 38, the 36, the 32, and some others. The alleged reason for
this was, that the ships composing those classes, being laid up for permanent "
harbour-service," had no armament belonging to them. If entitled to no armament, why were
they designated as 98, 64, 50 gun-ships, &c. ? None of the ships in the new
rating carry any guns until they are fitted for sea ; and yet all alike bear a
designation significant, not of their " ordinary," but of their commissioned force. The
term is meant as descriptive of a class, composed of non-effective, as well as effective
ships : why, then, not include the harbour-service ships among the former ;
or else, class them together as " harbour-service ships," without any reference to
their original rank in the navy ?

Having thus, in illustration of this rather complex abstract, entered,
at a tolerable length, into the minutiae of the plan upon which the new
classification of the British navy is conducted, I shall proceed to point out and explain
two or three of the more important of those few cases in which I have been
induced, chiefly for consistency sake, to remove ships from one class to another, without
the authority of the official list.

b     Until the new system, the
San-Josef mounted, on every deck, the same number of guns as the
Ville-de-Paris. It appears, however, that the former ship is to carry 30, instead of
32, guns upon the third deck. Considering this either as a mistake in the register,
or as an alteration not likely to be enforced when the ship is again, if she
ever should be, fitted for sea, especially as the San-Josef is still allowed
her 850 men (50 more than a 110-gun ship's complement), I have classed her as a
112-gun ship. The new plan of substituting Congreve's 24-pounders for the guns on the
third deck, by equalizing the calibers in the two ships, renders nugatory the
distinction between the classes of old B and C, and occasions the Ville-de-Paris and
San-Josef to approximate more closely than ever in their armament.

c     The Impregnable registers as a 104
; and yet the Trafalgar, the building ship associated with her, is
constructing from the former's draught, somewhat enlarged it is true, but chiefly in
breadth, to increase her stability. Of the two 106-gun ships in the official list, the
second is the Royal-Sovereign, of 2175 tons a ship armed precisely as the 104s,
except in being ordered two additional carronades for her quarterdeck ; an alteration, in a
three-decker, too insignificant and precarious to warrant the sacrifice of
consistency. This consideration has induced me to substitute the Impregnable for the
Royal-Sovereign ; and the latter accordingly remains with the 104s.

d     The probability that the new plan of
arming the third decks of three-deckers with Congreve's 24-pounders, instead of long 12 or
18 pounders, will extend to these ships, if any of them should hereafter be
required, or be found serviceable enough, to go to sea, is the reason that I have abandoned
the former distinction between 18 and 12 pounder ships, and classed them, as
in the official list, together.

e     One of these ships, the Endymion officially ranks
as a 48. It is true that she mounts one gun of a side on the main deck less than
the other five ships ; but the latter were built from the same draught, and merely
differ in being pierced for an additional port on the main deck. See p. 147. As
the Endymion is old and nearly worn out, and her five class-mates, being
built of soft wood, are not likely to survive her, I have chosen to retain the former with
them, rather than remove her to a class, of which she would be the only
individual. The official list contains a sixth 50-gun frigate, the Acasta ; but, as
she carries 18-pounders on the main deck, and is much smaller, I have ventured to
assign her another place: moreover, she is an old ship, and cannot last many years longer.

f     These five ships are the Acasta,
Cambrian, Lavinia, Révolutionnaire and
Forte. The first is the ship referred to in the latter part of the last note ; and
the two next ships are officially classed as 48s : the two last-named, therefore,
are the only cruisers of this class requiring to have their pretensions
discussed. The Révolutionnaire, it is believed, usually mounted 18
carronades, besides two long guns on her quarterdeck and forecastle, making 48 guns in all,
and, being of 1148 tons was well able to carry them ; but she now officially
classes as a 46. The Forte, measuring 1155 tons, was built, plank for plank, from
the draught of the Révolutionnaire and consequently possessed the
same capacities. Most unaccountably, however (unless it be considered as a
peace-establishment), the Forte has been assigned but 14 carronades, and, on that
account, though manned with a full complement of a 46, descends to a 44.
Considering that a war would instantly restore the Forte to her proper rank by the
side of her prototype, I have ventured so to place her.

g     The Seringapatam and
Tigris, building from the draught of the late French frigate
Présidente, afterwards named Piémontaise. The two former, the
first of 1152, the second of 1162 (occasioned by a slight increase in her length
from being constructed with a circular stern) tons, are registered as 46s ; and
yet, in January 1814, the Présidente, appears to have mounted, along
with her 28 guns upon the main deck, twenty 32-pounder carronades and two nines
upon the quarterdeck and forecastle, total 50 guns.

In fact, the Présidente, could have mounted (she was
broken up in 1815) 30 guns on her main deck ; and so can with ease (they being pierced for
32) the two ships building from her. The official register classes as 48s the
Loire and Sibylle. It is true that these ships, obtaining two additional
carronades each, did mount 48 guns ; and so did the Amelia, Africaine, and
Madagascar. The latter, indeed, mounted 50 guns. There would be an end to
all useful classification, if such instances were not considered as accidental
exception to the general rule.

h     Take away the Naiad and
Phaëton, and two foreign-built ships, the Alceste and Madagascar,
and, between any two of the remaining 34 frigates, no greater
difference of size can be found than 39 tons. Nor does that occur in more than one
instance. Generally, the ships do not disagree in size beyond 15 tons.

i     Of these three ships, the only one
officially classed as a 44 is the Andromache. The remaining two, the Pique
and Unité, class as 42s. The latter certainly appears not to
have mounted more than 42 guns (26 Gover's 24s on the main deck) ; but, being the
largest ship of the three, the Unité can as well mount 44 guns as the
Andromache herself, when named the Princess-Charlotte, did 46, and
the Pique the same. Such was the official oversight as to the latter ship's
proper classification, that, in the old rating, she ranked only as a 32, from
the time of her capture in 1800 until the 9th of April, 1813, when an
admiralty-order promoted the Pique to a 36, and this without at all augmenting her
force, that already exceeding the establishment of her new class. Were these three
ships to be transferred to the class next below them, the average difference in
size between the 37 cruisers of the latter and them would be as much as 95 tons.
Moreover, the 44 is a class that will soon disappear from the list.

k     [Appears to be a printing error = I can find no letter k] The Eurydice and Ganymede.
The first, of 521 tons, from mounting on her quarterdeck two more
18-pounder carronades than established upon the 32-gun class, officially ranks as a 34. The
second ship, of 601 tons, with more reason (though mounting, like all these ships,
but 22 guns on the main deck), classed also, for a while, as a 34. Subsequently,
the Ganymede registered (by mistake, as it would appear) as a 26 ;
and thus the Eurydice was left as the only 34-gun ship in the British navy. In
point of size, the Eurydice is rather exceeded. by each of the three ships,
with whom she and the Ganymede are here associated. Upon the whole, these
two ships cannot, with any regard to consistency or practical utility, be classed
any where else than where I have ventured to place them.

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