The two July battles use different classifications for 80-gun ships. Tonnant appeared at Grenada as an 80-gun second rate, but Caesar entered the Algeciras comparison as an 80-gun third rate only twenty-two years later. A rate was an administrative category tied to changing fleet standards rather than an immutable label fixed by one gun total. The Algeciras formations also looked more standardized around 74- and 80-gun line ships than the mixed Caribbean fleets of 1779.
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Why an 80-gun ship changed rates by 1801
The 80-gun Tonnant counted as a second rate in 1779, while the 80-gun Caesar counted as a third rate by 1801 as fleets and rating standards changed.