The fleet figures make a distinction between ships that carried the battle line and vessels used for communication, escort, raiding, and other supporting tasks. Frigates could relay signals along a smoke-obscured line, while sloops, brigs, cutters, and other smaller vessels handled communication, convoy, and commerce duties. First, second, and fourth rates were few by comparison, while third rates supplied the mass of the battlefleet. The point is not that smaller ships lacked value, but that third rates occupied the central fighting role at a scale the largest ships could not match.
Notable Point · 20:13-23:12
The Royal Navy's 1814 battlefleet balance
A comparison of the 1814 Royal Navy places 103 third rates between a handful of larger ships and hundreds of smaller supporting vessels.