Thomas Slade's Inflexible design descended from the 90-gun Neptune through the 74-gun Albion class. Both earlier designs are judged successful, which explains the attraction of reducing the same design again for a 64. Inflexible's difficult handling illustrates the problem with assuming another reduction would retain those qualities. Enlarging a sound design within limits is easier to calculate than reducing it.
Notable Point · 11:10-14:19
Scaling a 90-gun design down to a 64
Reducing Neptune's design through the Albion class to Inflexible helps explain the 64's difficult handling.