The St George name passed through several Royal Navy ships as gun counts changed within the sailing navy's rating system. A 96-gun ship qualified as a first rate in 1668, but a 98-gun ship was a second rate by 1785. By 1840, the St George launched as a first rate carried 120 guns. Each rating described a ship's place within the fleet of its own era, so the same gun count carried a lower rating over time.
Notable Point · 43:38-46:29
St George and the changing gun threshold for naval ratings
The history of ships named St George shows how first- and second-rate labels demanded progressively larger gun batteries from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries.