Pritchard, James; From Shipwright To Naval Constructor - Iowa State ...
Pritchard, James; From Shipwright To Naval Constructor - Iowa State ...
Pritchard, James; From Shipwright To Naval Constructor - Iowa State ...
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2 <strong>James</strong> <strong>Pritchard</strong><br />
First, historians have not generally acknowledged the highly subjec-<br />
tive nature of the notion of superiority, and, second, they have offered<br />
unsatisfactory explanations for the development of excellence in<br />
French-warship construction. Recently, Robert Gardiner attempted to<br />
dispel "the myth of French design superiority in the age of sail," but he<br />
concluded only "that different needs produce different designs."5 Gar-<br />
diner reminds us that warship qualities-speed, stability, lightness,<br />
durability, seaworthiness, and firepower-can be had only at the ex-<br />
pense of one another and that the superiority of any of these qualities<br />
lies in the eye of the beholder. While British seagoing naval officers<br />
generally praised French prizes, dockyard officials and the Navy Board<br />
usually criticized the ships for possessing different qualities.6<br />
The admired characteristics of French ships were speed and fire-<br />
power. A 1764 comparison of length-to-breadth and breadth-to-depth<br />
ratios of French and British ships having twenty-six to eighty guns<br />
reveals that, in every case, the former were larger and the latter smaller<br />
in French warships.7 French warships were generally faster, at least in<br />
light winds, and also probably less stable, particularly in heavy seas,<br />
than their British counterparts. But they also deployed greater firepower.<br />
Commodore Charles Knowles once complained that "our 70gun<br />
ships are little superior to their ships of 52 guns."8 Another British<br />
officer noted about 1745 that, whereas British sixty-, seventy-, and<br />
eighty-gun ships fired general discharges weighing 918, 1,044, and<br />
1,312 pounds, respectively, similar discharges from French sixty-fours<br />
and seventy-fours weighed 1,103 and 1,705 pounds.9 Twenty years<br />
later, a French comparison showed that the same British warships<br />
yielded weights of 878, 1,312, and 1,438 livres, while the same French<br />
warships fired discharges weighing 1,020 and 1,676 livres.10 Yet, even<br />
bridge, 1965), p. 186; <strong>James</strong> Henderson, The Frigates: An Account of the Lesser Warships of<br />
the Warsfrom 1793-1815 (London, 1970), p. 17. Henderson asserts that several classes of<br />
late-18th-century British frigates followed from French originals; Robertson (n. 1<br />
above), p. 44, claims that captured French battleships served as models for British<br />
eighty-four- and seventy-four-gun ships and ended construction of any more sixty- and<br />
seventy-gun ships.<br />
5Robert Gardiner, "Frigate Design in the 18th Century," Warship: A QuarterlyJournal of<br />
Warship History, no. 12 (1979): 275.<br />
6Ibid., no. 10 (1979): 85.<br />
7Archives Nationales, Archives de la Marine (hereinafter Marine), B5, 11, "Comparai-<br />
son des vaisseaux francais avec les vaisseaux anglois en dimentions principales, en<br />
artillerie et en equipage, en 1764."<br />
8Lavery (n. 1 above), 1:90.<br />
9Ibid.<br />
'?Marine, B5, 11, "Comparaison des vaisseaux ...." In contrast to the English pound<br />
weighing 454 grams the French livre weighs 489 grams.