England's recurring manpower constraints encouraged the concentration of skill in powerful naval units. Gunnery, seamanship, maintenance, and command all required trained people, so a first rate was valuable only when dockyards, stores, and administration could keep it effective. The growth from earlier great ships to heavily armed ships of the line involved institutions and labor as well as larger hulls. Repeated gunnery training turned limited manpower into a larger usable volume of fire.
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First rates concentrate scarce skilled manpower
Large artillery ships let England concentrate trained sailors and gunners, but demanded a much deeper support system.