Fourth-rate
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In the British Royal Navy, a fourth-rate was, during the first half of the 18th century, a ship of the line mounting from 46 up to 60 guns. While the number of guns stayed subsequently in the same range up until 1817, after 1756 the ships of 50 guns and below were considered too weak to stand in the line of battle, although the remaining 60-gun ships were still classed as fit to be ships of the line. However, the 50-gun ship continued to be used largely during the Seven Years' War, and during the time of the American Revolution a whole new group of 50-gun ships was constructed, not for the battle fleet, but to meet the needs of combat in the shallow waters off North America where the larger ships found it difficult to sail. But by the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, even this function was in retreat, and few 50s were built. The 60-gun ships were also dying out, superseded initially by the 64-gun third rates, although by 1793 there were still four 60-gun ships left in harbour service. The few 50s that remained were relegated to convoy escort, or as flagships on far-flung stations; a number were also converted to troopships, armed only "en flûte" (i.e., with most of the guns removed or stored below decks, to make more room for passengers or cargo).
Some fourth rates did remain in active service even during the Napoleonic Wars, especially in the shallow North Sea, where the Royal Navy's main opponents were the Baltic powers and the Dutch, whose own fleet consisted mainly of 50 and 64 gun ships. However, HMS Leander, 50 guns, was with Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile. As late as 1807, fourth rates were active in combat zones, illustrated by the fatal incident between HMS Leopard (50 guns), and the US frigate Chesapeake (38 guns), an incident which nearly led to war.
The American 44-gun frigates (such as Constitution, United States and President) in operational use were never armed with fewer than 50 guns including carronades, and were generally seen as equivalent to 4th rates. The larger British 24-pounder frigates such as the later 1813 Leander and Newcastle, of similar firepower to those big American 44s, which were launched (or razée from existing smaller 3rd Rate 74-gun 2-deckers) during the last years of the Napoleonic War and the War of 1812 were in fact classed as 4th-rates in Royal Naval service under the revised rating system, and this convention continued into the 19th Century. Any of these later large 4th-Rate frigates threw a close-range broadside (including from their heavy carronades) far superior to the earlier 2-decker 50s or even to 3rd Rate 64s.
Some ships of commerce such as the East Indiamen were heavily armed in order to protect themselves from pirates and privateers, effectively making them equivalent to fourth rate ships of the line.
[edit] References
- Rif Winfield, The 50-Gun Ship (Chatham Publishing, 1997) ISBN 1-86176-025-6 - A first-rate reference for everything about British fourth-rates.
