Ships-of-the-Line
29 APRIL 1816
SHIPS-OF-THE-LINE
Until the 16th century, navies, like land forces, relied mostly on hand-to-hand fighting to defeat an enemy. Tactics required warships to ram or grapple each other, then send across assault troops to attack the enemy’s crew. Fighting galleys carried large complements of marine soldiers, later called simply “marines,” for this purpose. Battling fleets sought engagement in wild, intermingled melees that provided each warship a reasonable chance to close and grapple an enemy. Unless ships caught fire they rarely sank, rather they tended to change hands between rival navies.
The development of the gun in the 1500s revolutionized fleet tactics. Early guns were not powerful enough to destroy whole ships, but they did allow the first “stand-off” ability to attack the enemy crew. Melee tactics proved inefficient as half the time your guns would be bearing on friendly ships. The British solved this problem by aligning their ships into a single-file column, the line-ahead. By sailing past your enemy thusly, one could bring each broadside sequentially to the action. However, like a chain, this “line-ahead” could be broken by a determined foe at the weakest ship, and a melee would ensue. Therefore, only the heaviest men-of-war were allowed to be ships-of-the-line, manned by the best crews, line sailors. By the 18th century ships mounting less than 70 guns were not considered worthy of the line. Smaller ships were assigned to patrol or escort duties. Our most famous early sailing warships such as the frigates CONSTITUTION, 44, and BONHOMME RICHARD, 40, would have been only minor vessels in the Royal, French, or Spanish navies of that day.
On three occasions Congress authorized capital ships of sail for our Navy. The construction of three ships of 74 guns was approved in 1776, only one of which was built, AMERICA. But the Revolutionary War was nearly over when she sailed, and shortly after her launch in 1782 AMERICA was donated to France in recognition of that nation’s aid. On this date, Congress authorized the construction of nine ships of “greater than 74 guns.” Eight were completed, the 136-gun PENNSYLVANIA becoming the largest ship of sail ever commissioned into our Navy. But these eight were fitted-out during peacetime and spent the bulk of their careers “in ordinary.” Perhaps the most useful of these ships-of-the-line proved to be INDEPENDENCE. She was originally holed for 90 guns, but the weight of that armament burdened her so that water shipped through the lower gun ports. She was “razeed” (lightened by cutting away gunwales and framing) and re-rated at 54 guns, serving in the Mexican and Civil Wars as a frigate.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 5 MAY 22
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1991, p. 240.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 424-25.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, pp. 610, 625-27.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, p. 250.
Potter, E.B. Sea Power: A Naval History, 2nd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1981, pp. 18, 22.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Roman galleys mounted a gangway called a corvus projecting from the bow, that was hinged in the vertical position during cruising. During battle a galley would ram an enemy, and the corvus would be dropped to allow troops to swarm across.
Interestingly, credit for the line-ahead idea goes to the British Army. When Oliver Cromwell seized power in England in 1653, he radically re-vamped the British military. He abolished the aristocratic admiralty, placing Army general officers in charge of the Navy. These “Generals of the Sea” as Cromwell called them developed line-ahead formation.
“Ordinary” is an old English word meaning an inn or place of temporary rest. Warships placed “in ordinary” were left floating but were stripped of guns, equipment, and running rigging. They were manned with less intensively trained “ordinary seamen” to keep up routine maintenance. Operational vessels were crewed by more capable “able seamen.”
