A ship armed en flûte normally surrendered guns to create troop capacity, and HMS Alfred was described in ways that suggest such transport service. The likely arrangement left her decisive 32- and 18-pounders aboard, especially because accounts place ships of this type in the bombardment. Removing lighter upper-deck guns could still make room for troops while preserving a useful heavy battery. Cochrane also had a habit of describing warships as transports or partially unarmed vessels so the Admiralty would not recall them from his command. The classification therefore joined amphibious logistics to bureaucratic maneuver, giving him more lift and more firepower than the official combat list implied.
Notable Point · 28:31-35:14
How Cochrane hid combat power inside transport classifications
Ambiguous accounts of HMS Alfred expose Cochrane's habit of calling partially disarmed warships transports while retaining useful heavy guns.