The American ships of the line planned before 1812

If the United States had built ships of the line before the War of 1812, what would the mix of first, second, and third rates have looked like?

The plan leaned toward heavy seventy-fours and roughly ninety-gun Columbus-class second rates, potentially creating a compact fleet of about ten ships rather than a broad rate structure.

The proposed American battle fleet combines seventy-four-gun ships with a Columbus-class design described here as roughly a ninety-gun second rate. USS America was completed and given to France in 1782, while the Columbus-class programme is identified as having been cancelled in 1800. Retaining four seventy-fours and building six of the larger ships would produce a counterfactual fleet of about ten ships of the line. That force is considered useful for supporting the later Monroe Doctrine against weaker naval opponents. Its limits become clear when the comparison turns to Britain, France, and Spain, whose fleets would still complicate American enforcement.