Age-of-sail parallels to modern procurement failure

Did the age of sail produce procurement debacles comparable to Constellation?

There were failures, especially as steam and iron changed design, but slower technology and less continuous political attention made exact modern parallels uncommon.

Alex argues that familiar ship types and slower technical change made many sailing-era purchases less uncertain than modern programmes. He identifies the transition toward steam and iron as a period when established wooden designs reached their limits. A very large wooden frigate is compared with Warrior, although the earlier class name is unclear in the captions. He also suggests that ships attracted less continuous political attention between authorisation and launch. These are his explanations for why a direct comparison with modern procurement failures is difficult.