1813	The Frigate Classes	145

were officially registered as " frigates, " but, by way of salvo for their anomalous structure " with spar decks, " was superadded. If, by " frigate, " is meant a ship with a single battery-deck from stem to stern, is it not a sufficient stretch of the term, to apply it to a vessel that has two additional short decks, upon which are mounted nearly as many guns as she carries on her whole deck ? But must a ship, having two whole decks, upon each of which an equal number of guns is mounted, be called a single-decked vessel ? And yet, in official language, the Leander and Newcastle are not two-decked ships, otherwise their lower battery-deck would not be called their upper deck, nor their upper, their spar deck ; neither would their depth of hold be measured from the deck below the first battery-deck, nor the length of the same deck be registered as the " length of gundeck. " These are the only points, in which these frigates with spar decks differ from the cut-down 74s, and from the 56 and 54 gun ships already mentioned.

The command of the Leander was given to Captain Sir George Ralph Collier, a name of frequent occurrence in these pages ; and the command of the Newcastle, to Captain Lord George Stuart. Great difficulty was experienced in getting these two ships manned ; and certainly the crew of the Leander, after it was obtained, was a very indifferent one, containing, besides many old and weakly men, an unusually large proportion of boys. This ineffectiveness of the Leander's crew has recently been contradicted ; but we allude to the period of the ship's arrival at Halifax, Nova Scotia. We were then on board the Leander several times, and not only witnessed the quality of her crew, but heard the officers complain, as well they might, of their great inferiority in that respect to the ships against which they were expected to succeed. When she quitted Spithead for Halifax, the Leander was so lumbered with stores, that the ship would scarcely have made the voyage, had she not received a refit in Cork ; and even then it was fortunate, much as was to be expected from her captain and officers, that the Leander did not encounter one of the American 44s.

Another ship, of the same force in guns, and nearly so in men, as the Leander and Newcastle, was produced by raising upon the Akbar, formerly a teak-built Indiaman, and more recently known as the 44-gun frigate Cornwallis, The Akbar proved a very indifferent cruiser, sailing heavily, and rolling to such a degree, that she was constantly carrying away or springing her masts. The ship actually stowed 450 tons of water ; while the Caledonia, a ship of double her measurement, could not stow more than 421 tons. The Akbar has since been converted to the only purpose for which, and carrying a cargo, she was ever adapted, a troop-ship.

If it was deemed necessary to build or equip ships to oppose the large American frigates in fair combat, they should have

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