Why an age-of-sail frigate was not a destroyer

Did the age of sail have an equivalent to the destroyer?

Not really; frigates were the nearest role comparison, but they lacked a torpedo-like weapon and normally could not defeat an intact ship of the line.

A frigate is the nearest broad comparison, but the analogy breaks down in combat power. Without a torpedo equivalent, a frigate could not normally destroy a healthy ship of the line; success implied an unusually lucky action, a disarmed troop transport, or a larger ship already crippled in battle. In an open-ocean encounter with an intact first rate, the frigate's practical response was to use its sailing qualities to escape rather than seek battle. The answer warns against mapping modern ship categories directly onto the sailing navy.