List of ships and other vessels in the game

[LeBoiteux]

On 6/15/2016 at 6:20 PM, Talos said:

Yes, corvette was the French term at the time, not applicable to either a US or British ship like the Rattlesnake/Cormorant. The term is broader than sloop originally in that it can extend up to post ship-sized ships. Sloops can cover two and three masts (brig and ship sloops), and later on also included the smallest 6th rate post ships. In the US, all the later brig sloops were actually snow-rigged with spencer masts carrying fore and aft sails. Corvette didn't really enter the lexicon of the US and UK until the 1820s/30s, where it starts showing up sporadically, usually as something smaller than a sloop. This is visible in Chapelle's draughts, where one of the designs leading up to the Boston-class sloops of the 1830s was a smaller ship referred to as a corvette.

+1.. As a reminder, here is a summary of the History of the Corvette from this book written by Boudriot. This summary (with interesting pictures) was made by @Surcouf in French. Here is a quick translation in English (without pics) :

1) 17th century

Pre-corvettes are barques longues.

2) End of the Ancien Régime (until 1789)

In 1740-1745, Blaise Ollivier, a French maritime engineer, described a corvette as having a length fo 50-80 ft (16,24 à 25,98m) and between 4 and 16 guns of 4-pdr. 

P. Morineau, another engineer, wrote in 1750 that a corvette is a 80 feet-length ship with 14 x 4-to-6-pdr guns. 

A regulation from 1765 divided them into two categories : 20 x 6-pdr gun corvettes and 12 x 4-pdr ones.

At that time, the armament of French frigates switched from 6-pdr to 8-pdr and French corvettes never had more than 20 guns.

In 1767, the plans of Corvettes show :

• 12 to 18 guns,
• length from 100 to 105 ft (32,48 à 34,10m).

At this moment, Corvettes looks like Frigates. The only differences lie in the caliber of their guns (8 to 12-pdr for the frigates) and their hull length. Since the War of American Independence, 8-pdr frigates has no longer been in production. 
Thus, corvettes were then armed with 8-pdr guns from that time on.
In 1786, Jean-Charles de Borda proposed the building of 60 corvettes with 24 x 8-pdr guns and 20 corvettes with 6-pdr x 20 guns. 

3) French Revolution (1789-1803)

Most of the corvettes were built following Borda’s planning.

4) First Empire (1804-1814)

Corvettes are built with 20 x 6-or-8-pdr guns. Since 1807, guns have been replaced by 24-pdr carronades.

5) Restoration period (1814-1830)

New kinds of corvettes were imagined on the proposal from Jean Tupinier during a Ministerial Commission, called « La Commission de Paris » in 1824. 

Then, three types coexisted :

           1) « La corvette de 32 à batterie couverte »

Specifications : 

• A gun battery covered by a flush spar-deck (making the quarterdeck and the forecastle connected),
• Armament : 
  • 20 x 30-pdr carronades (a new caliber) and 4 x 18-pdr short guns (lower deck),
  • 8 x 30-pdr carronades (upper one). 
• Length : 42,25 m !

She was an in-between warship : a more powerful armament than a corvette (and an upper deck in addition) but still lighter than a frigate. She’s the last evolution of the French corvettes, built in the middle of the XIX-th century. 

French poster Surcouf found the plans of one of the last « corvettes de 32 » built in Rochefort in 1876, a 100%-sail training ship : La Favorite.

          2) « La Corvette de 24 »

Specifications :

• An uncovered battery with 20 x 30-pdr carronades and 4 x 18-pdr short guns,
• Length : 38,64 m.

Successor of the older classical type of corvettes.

Example : La Créole (1823)

Monograph by Boudriot : http://ancre.fr/en/monographies-en/61-monographie-de-la-creole-corvette-1823.html

          3) « La Corvette-Aviso »

Chosen in 1822 from a plan dating from the Revolution.

3-masted ship armed with 16 x 18-pdr carronades and 2 x 12-pdr short guns ; 24, 67 m long.

Small ships designed for speed in order to carry orders or dispatches. 

Note that the « Corvette de 32 » was longer than the « Corvette-Aviso » by 18 m and had twice as many guns !

On 6/15/2016 at 3:49 PM, Fluffy Fishy said:

I would also be suspect to the naming of Surprise as a heavy corvette too, as my understanding she is very much a frigate.

Indeed. The original ship, the French L'Unité (1794), could be considered as an "heavy Corvette" with her 24 x 9-pdr + 6 x 6-pdr as, according to Boudriot, the French Revolutionaries tried to make their corvettes heavily armed at this time of threats. But HMS Surprise with her 38 guns after refit by the British looks very much like a (light) Frigate. As shown in the quick History above, the archetype of the (French) Corvette is a 3-masted ship with max. 20 x 4/6/8-pdr.

Edited August 30, 2018 by LeBoiteux