Rating system of the Royal Navy

The rating system of the Royal Navy was used by the Royal Navy between the 1670s and early 19th century to categorise sailing warships according to their ability to stand in a line of battle and according to their number of guns. Cannon (large, smooth-bored, muzzle-loading guns) were counted, but not carronades (short guns which were half the weight of equivalent long guns), although rated ships could carry up to twelve 24- or 32-pounder carronades. During the Napoleonic Wars the correlation between formal gun rating and actual number of long guns or carronades carried by any individual ship was theoretical at best.

When first established, first-rates were ships of exactly 100 guns, second-rates 90 guns, third-rates 70 guns, and fourth-rates 54–60 guns. As time passed, and different ships were built with greater or fewer numbers of guns, the term was expanded to include the ranges listed below.

Although the rating system was only used by the Royal Navy, British authors might still use "first-rate" when referring to the largest ships of other nations or "third-rate" to speak of a French seventy-four. By the end of the 18th century, the rating system had mostly fallen out of common use, ships of the line usually being characterized directly by their nominal number of guns, the numbers even being used as the name of the type, as in "a squadron of three seventy-fours".

The rating system did not handle ships smaller than the sixth rate, the remainder simply being "unrated". The larger of the unrated vessels were generally called sloopss (but be warned that nomenclature is quite confusing for unrated vessels, especially when dealing with the finer points of "brig", "sloop-of-war", "corvette" and "post-ship" and whether any particular vessel is one, the other, or several of these at once). Sixth-rate ships were generally useful as convoy escorts, for blockade duties and the carrying of dispatches; their small size made them a bit unsuited for the general cruising tasks the fifth-rate frigates did so well.

Rating system

In 1817, the Royal Navy introduced a new rating system which included carronades in the count.

The rating system was again modified later based more on the size of the crew.

Other uses

References