Why a frigate captain might not want a larger command
The prize system could make a nominally larger command financially less attractive.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
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Super-heavy frigates before the War of 1812
Swedish, French, and British 24-pounder frigates place the famous American heavy frigates inside a wider pre-1812 design competition.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
How Royal Navy frigates compared with American super-heavies
The answer uses United States versus Macedonian to distinguish national performance from a mismatch in frigate size and battery weight.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Royal Navy razees predated the War of 1812
The 1794 conversions show that cutting ships of the line down into powerful frigates was a response to French competition before the American war.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Why third rates did not dominate the frigate war of 1812
Overwhelming ships of the line had less influence on the famous single-frigate actions than their power suggests.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Why copper appeared early in powder magazines
The answer ties magazine construction directly to the two persistent threats of moisture and accidental ignition.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
How gun size affected age-of-sail rate of fire
The answer separates the modest handling advantage of a lighter muzzle-loader from the sharper rate differences of later mounted guns.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
How much live oak helped American heavy frigates
The answer places the famous live-oak hulls inside the broader force mismatch of the early War of 1812 frigate actions.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
How razees expressed the battlecruiser philosophy
The answer places razees inside the recurring naval formula of speed against stronger ships and superior power against slower or weaker ones.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Why frigates usually stayed out of the line of battle
A frigate's battlefield protection depended on rating and appearance rather than a universal rule.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
How sailing warships kept sparks out of powder magazines
Several viewer questions build a practical picture of magazine safety aboard a wooden warship.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
How merchant shipping answers modern piracy
Age-of-sail commerce protection compared with contracted security aboard modern merchant vessels.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
What actually determined a frigate's speed
The answer replaces a simple type hierarchy with the practical variables that governed sailing performance.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Sovereign of the Seas and the meaning of a long service life
Sovereign of the Seas illustrates how cutting down, rebuilding, and repeated refitting could keep a major wooden warship relevant for sixty years.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
How Sovereign of the Seas changed gun ratings
A wooden warship's gun count must be tied to a particular refit rather than treated as one permanent specification.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
How a powder magazine was lit without an open flame
A simple architectural precaution used to isolate the magazine from ignition sources.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Nelson boarding one enemy ship through another
A viewer's hypothetical leads to Nelson's famous example of using a captured deck as a bridge into another prize.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Spardeck frigates built to hunt American heavy frigates
HMS Newcastle and HMS Leander show the Royal Navy answering American heavy frigates with purpose-built 50-gun spardeck ships.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Why sailing navies treated black powder so cautiously
Glass-separated lamps, copper fittings, and strict handling rules were proportionate safeguards rather than superstition.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
When a spardeck frigate could trouble a ship of the line
The weather and positioning conditions that could let a very heavy frigate threaten a larger opponent.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Why the upper level was called a spardeck
The answer ties a warship architecture term to the practical storage work that originally happened on that deck.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Edward Pellew and the Western Frigate Squadron
Edward Pellew's rise through small ships and frigates shows how independent commands rewarded initiative, seamanship, and personal courage.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Ralph Collier's attack on Fleche
Collier's fight with the French corvette Fleche shows how bold inshore action could turn small-ship command into rapid promotion.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Post ships and the lower boundary of a Royal Navy frigate
Post ships reveal that official rating, command rank, rig, and hull form did not produce one simple definition of frigate.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Sidney Smith's precocious command and intelligence apprenticeship
Smith's promotion before sixteen and peacetime study of foreign ports show how early command, patronage, and self-directed intelligence shaped an exceptional frigate officer.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Sidney Smith from Swedish fleet command to the Toulon fires
Smith commanded a Swedish light squadron against Russia, then improvised his way into the evacuation of Toulon and burned more French ships than any prior fleet action.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Sidney Smith's Western Squadron raids, capture, and escape
HMS Diamond's close reconnaissance, improvised island bases, and a failed cutting-out attack show the opportunities and risks of aggressive frigate command.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
What happened to a prize captured after peace
Prize courts used correspondence and ship logs to judge knowledge in an era of slow communications.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Sidney Smith's joint campaigns in Naples and Lisbon
Smith used naval command to organize land forces in southern Italy and evacuate the Portuguese fleet, repeatedly exceeding the limits of his orders.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Sidney Smith's anti-slavery campaign and Paris exile
After the Napoleonic Wars, Smith campaigned against African and Barbary enslavement but ended his career burdened by unreimbursed diplomatic debts.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Bold naval officers and survival bias
The closing discussion adds survival bias to the celebrated stories of aggressive frigate and small-ship commanders.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Learning frigate history through family memory and books
The answer offers a route into the subject while explaining why the history of small-ship commanders remains scattered across many sources.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Why small-ship commands attracted risk-tolerant officers
The closing exchange connects frigate careers to age, autonomy, institutional incentives, and promotion.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
Would removing Napoleon have prevented the same wars?
The answer uses a late counterfactual discussion to distinguish the influence of one leader from the political and military conditions that made his rise possible.
From Patreon 28: The original cruisers: Royal Navy frigates in the age of sail ·
The Warennes as a middle-rank power family
The Warenne earls were wealthy castle holders whose influence reveals how medieval power worked below the level of kings.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·
William de Warenne's death and noble networks
William de Warenne's tournament death opens onto aristocratic lineage, funerals, and the political networks around a noble family.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·
John de Warenne's wardship and royal service
John de Warenne's minority shows how royal wardship, inherited estates, custody of Scottish claimants, and ceremonial knighting linked noble households to the crown.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·
The Feast of the Swans and a generation of knights
Edward I's mass knighting at Westminster joined military recruitment, royal spectacle, and a public vow to renew the war in Scotland.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·
Robert Bruce, John Comyn, and the Scottish crown
John Comyn's killing, Robert Bruce's coronation, and English noble marriages connect the Warenne family to the struggle over Scotland.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·
Warenne, Gaveston, and baronial reform
John de Warenne's changing allegiances place him inside the unstable politics of Edward II, Piers Gaveston, and baronial reform.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·
Gaveston's Irish exile and a bargain over taxation
Edward II used an Irish lieutenancy, church diplomacy, and promised reforms to clear a path for Piers Gaveston's return from exile.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·
What the barons wanted reformed
The baronial reform program targeted purveyance, court jurisdiction, legal delay, pardons, customs, coinage, and unanswered parliamentary petitions.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·
Patronage and tournament politics restore Gaveston
A tournament ban, Henry de Lacy's mediation, and resentment over court patronage explain Warenne's abrupt reconciliation with Gaveston.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·
An armed Parliament creates the Ordainers
Fear of Gaveston brought armed earls to Parliament, where Lancaster displaced the Scottish agenda with a constitutional attack on Edward II's household government.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·
The Ordinances and the Scarborough crisis
The 1311 Ordinances, Gaveston's return, and the stand at Scarborough Castle lead into Warenne's failed guarantee of safe custody.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·
Warenne's Scottish service and royal rewards
Warenne's support for Edward II in Scotland shows how limited forces, reluctant magnates, border campaigning, and grants of land sustained medieval war.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·
Lancaster's five-earldom power base
Henry de Lacy's death transferred Lincoln and Salisbury to Thomas of Lancaster, giving the opposition leader five earldoms and leverage even over where he would perform homage.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·
The forty-one Ordinances limit Edward II
The 1311 Ordinances required annual Parliaments and noble consent over war, travel, and appointments before singling out Gaveston for permanent exile.
From A Book or Two to Review (10): Defenders of the Norman Crown ·