IRL: big ships go faster than little ships!

[NorthernWolves]

I posted on the other thread about the President's extensive keel, hog and mast damage prior to the capture.

 

The 15 knots was leaving Malta in 1837, I will grab the source, it was a screenshot of the log.

[maturin]

When Constitution was in Malta it appears she was under reduced armament, with a portion of her upper deck guns missing.

[Alex Connor]

Before you get too excited...

 

Remember all those times French frigates were simply uncatchable and outran every British pursuit?

 

Me neither. In the Napoleonic era british frigates caught french frigates as often as french frigates escaped, there was little if anything between them in speed. Usually came down to who had the cleaner hull.

 

British Sane copies matched the originals in downwind speed and marginally outperformed them upwind (because we used a longer and deeper keel design). British rivals of the Leda like the Lively again did 13kts downwind and had even better upwind performance. Forfait type frigates were a little faster than Sane, but not much in it.