Bearly There

Some one mentioned HMS Glatton with all carronades and it being an interesting ship. There was actually a frigate outfitted with all carronades, the HMS Rainbow. This is taken from the Age of Sail website. In the aftermath of Nymphe’s being taken by Flora, the Navy Board quickly became enamored of the carronade and the weapon’s effectiveness in combat had silenced naysayers. By January 1781, 604 carronades were mounted on 429 ships. This is probably a record for a new weapon being adopted. The next step in the experiment was an all-carronade frigate. For this project the HMS Rainbow (44) under Captain Henry Trollope was chosen. Rainbow exchanged her 20 long 18-pounders and 22 long 12-pounders for 20 68-pounder, 22 42-pounder, and 6 32-pounder carronades. Then went out hunting. On 2 September 1782 Ile de Bas she encountered the French frigate Hebe (40). The ships maneuvered for position and Captain Trollope engaged Hebe with the 32-pounders on his forecastle. One or more of the shots hit killing five Frenchmen. The captain of Hebe examined the fragments of the hollow carronade shot and concluded that if she was firing 32-pounders as chase pieces she was actually a ship of the line in disguise. He fired one broadside, “pour l’honneur de pavilion,” and struck his colors. Rainbow lost only one man. The French lost five killed, including the second captain, and several wounded out of a crew of 360 men. I think this would be an incredible fun ship to take into combat. The challenging part would be getting it into range to use the carronades, however once in range it could serious damage to a larger SoL that was not as agile. A nasty suprise if the other captain is expecting a normal 44 gun frigate and suddenly has 68 pounder cannon balls whistling past his ear. Might be good as a upgradeable/modification to an existing in game 44. Perhaps an interesting opponent to the Constitution .