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'Mordaunt' 1681 (British 4th Rate with Plans)


Ned Loe

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Been thinking along those lines myself. Not Mordaunt in particular, as a SoL with only a 12 pdr maindeck I just can't see her as combat viable, and even premium warship needs a combat role.

But older vessels would make great premium ships. Obviously as time advanced ships got bigger and started carrying bigger guns to match, so these older ships aren't as powerful, but you can still find ones that could fill a combat role.

And they are beautiful, elaborately decorated and elegant in design, people would love to sail them so these ships would sell. You can even make them cheaper to repair or rebuy ingame because of their age, which offers a decent premium benefit. And with these ships not quite being as powerful as Napoleonic ships they won't exactly break the game.

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Been thinking along those lines myself. Not Mordaunt in particular, as a SoL with only a 12 pdr maindeck I just can't see her as combat viable, and even premium warship needs a combat role.

But older vessels would make great premium ships. Obviously as time advanced ships got bigger and started carrying bigger guns to match, so these older ships aren't as powerful, but you can still find ones that could fill a combat role.

And they are beautiful, elaborately decorated and elegant in design, people would love to sail them so these ships would sell. You can even make them cheaper to repair or rebuy ingame because of their age, which offers a decent premium benefit. And with these ships not quite being as powerful as Napoleonic ships they won't exactly break the game.

 

Well first off, everyone has a different definition of "combat viable".  9 and 12 pound guns aren't that bad, just look at how well the Surprise performs and the Mordaunt itself carries more guns.  Additionally it is possible that she might have better planking armoring making her more resilient than something like the Surprise.  Finally I think if I recall what I read correctly, she is actually a shorter length than the Surprise which means she may very well have better turning capabilities than the Surprise (at the expense of top speed of course).  In a lot of ways I she kind of seems like she would kind of like be a big brother to the Snow which as we know is a rather slow but very nimble ship.  

 

So back to the term "Combat Viable".  Will she be able to stand in the line of battle?  Nope.  Ships like a Bellona would tear her apart while being very resistant to anything the Morduant could throw at it.  Could she match up against most 5th rate Frigates in the 32-38 gun range?  Absolutely!  She has more guns, likely more armor in most cases and is likely a bit more nimble in a turning battle due to her shortened length.   She might even have more cargo capacity than your average Frigate making her more trader friendly.

 

So would the Mordaunt be viable?  Absolutely!  Also its kind of oddball characteristics are why I think it would be an excellent premium.  It is a 4th rate, that has firepower more like a 5th rate, while being smaller than most mid-size Frigates plus has a very unique, non-generic look about it.  Perfect premium and one ship I would have no issues spending my hard earned money to obtain should it become a premium.

Edited by Austrum
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  • 1 year later...

This was my favorite ship in POTBS as well. I was actually going to start a post on the mordaunt until I found this one. It would be nice to be able to sail my old ship again  :D . I think it would also offer an interesting ship option to those looking for a smaller, more agile ship of the line that still packs a punch.

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She's a pretty ship, there's no denying it, but the fact she's smaller than the Surprise and likely weaker than the other rates ingame is giving me pause and I'm surprised it's not giving others the same reaction. Are we really going to consider adding an archaic design into the game? If so, does adding the Mordaunt open the door for other older ships to enter that "look nostalgic but are otherwise worthless to sail" as has been argued countless times before?

I'm not necessarily trying to open an old sore subject, nor put her down so readily, but I'm also very surprised she's going to be in the next vote so quickly with her cons so readily visible.

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If so, does adding the Mordaunt open the door for other older ships to enter that "look nostalgic but are otherwise worthless to sail" as has been argued countless times before?

 

 

The door already is open, Ingermanland smashed right through it :P

 

The problem is the timeline, in my opinion. Should be 1740 - 1815, with some exceptions like the Hvide Orn, Peregrine Galley or maybe Le Fleuron, whose design were well ahead of their time.

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Which brings my next question, comparing the Mordaunt to the Ingermanland. Does she compare favorably or is it not even a contest? If she handles poorly and her armament is not up to par, why consider her at all? Based on looks alone?

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Based on looks alone?

 

 

That´s one thing I learned pretty fast: never judge the performance of a ship by her looks/plans. Some may have sleek lines but sailed like pig (our dear Surprise, for example), some look top heavy and have a full body but set the standard for her class (e.g. Slade´s Alarms). Other things like length-to-breadth ratio, waterlines, block coefficient and position of the metacenter may give a better indication of the actual performance, but that´s also rather hit-and-miss.

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I have to say the sails on those models look a whole lot better than the oversized sheets the POBS mordaunt had

 

and the POBS Mordaunt was missing the triangle sails... I think all their square riggeds missed those sails between the foremast and the main mast?

Edited by Quineloe
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Such a good looking ship.  It really is gorgeous. 

 

Armament

1682  

Broadside Weight = 214 Imperial Pound ( 97.0492 kg) B164

Lower Gun Deck 20 British 12-Pounder

Upper Gun Deck 18 British 8-Pounder

Quarterdeck 8 British Saker

1694

Broadside Weight = 207.5 Imperial Pound ( 94.1015 kg) B065

Lower Gun Deck 20 British 12-Pounder

Upper Gun Deck 20 British 6-Pounder

Quarterdeck 10 British Saker

 

Crew Complement

Date # of Men

1689 200 

 

I was going to say that its a little underpowered but the fact that it has 200 crew tells me this is a good incentive for lower level players. Every player dreams of owning an SOL.

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She's a pretty ship, there's no denying it, but the fact she's smaller than the Surprise and likely weaker than the other rates ingame is giving me pause and I'm surprised it's not giving others the same reaction. Are we really going to consider adding an archaic design into the game? If so, does adding the Mordaunt open the door for other older ships to enter that "look nostalgic but are otherwise worthless to sail" as has been argued countless times before?

I'm not necessarily trying to open an old sore subject, nor put her down so readily, but I'm also very surprised she's going to be in the next vote so quickly with her cons so readily visible.

 

As OTMatt said, If she is sailing with "only" 200 souls, she is would see incredibly broad use. Maybe even a sort of training platform for players to learn Line Battles and alike.

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  • 9 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Hello my first post in here is to add sime more flimpsy detail to the ships - hopefully always historically correct.  

I found this forum by looking for ship plans for French baroque shipmodels.

The shown pictures of the kitmodel give us a very much simplyfied idea of the MORDAUNT's real decoration. For thisv wounderful ship it is a shame due to cost saving kit production proposes.

Here the original yard model of MORDAUNT of 1681 from the NMM. The only fault I could figure out is the golden topside of the capstain. The hole craving work is wounderful, still original and the colours look authentic.

 

Even the doveblue is right - here a signum of the Sunking from Versailles. The lapislatsuli stone was milled and mixed with a light amount of green cupper oxyd - by this the greenish doveblue came to us.

Enjoy the ship and think about pimping your Eirompdel kit to a historically right MORDAUNT 😜

 

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