Fifth-rate

In Britain's Royal Navy during the classic age of fighting sail, a fifth-rate was the penultimate class of warships in a hierarchal system of six "ratings" based on size and firepower.

Rating

Fifth and the smaller Sixth Rates were never included among ships-of-the-line. The Fifth Rates at the start of the 18th century were generally "demi-batterie" ships, carrying a few heavy guns on their lower deck (which often used the rest of the lower deck for row ports) and a full battery of lesser guns on the upper deck. However, these were gradually phased out, as the low freeboard (the height of the lower deck gunport sills above the waterline) meant that it was often impossible to open the lower deck gunports in rough weather. From mid-century, a new Fifth Rate type was introduced - the classic frigate, with no gunports on the lower deck, and the main battery of from 26 to 30 guns disposed solely on the upper deck, although smaller guns were mounted on the quarterdeck and forecastle.

Fifth-rate ships served as fast scouts or independent cruisers and included a variety of gun arrangements. The Fifth rates of the 1750s generally carried a main battery of twenty-six 12-pounders, with six 6-pounders on the quarterdeck and forecastle (a few carried extra 6-pounders on the quarterdeck). Larger Fifth rates introduced during the late 1770s carried a main battery of twenty-six or twenty-eight 18-pounders, also with smaller guns (6-pounders or 9-pounders) on the quarterdeck and forecastle. Tonnage ranged from 700 to 1450 tons, with crews of 215 to 294 men.

To be posted aboard a Fifth-rate ship was considered an attractive assignment. Fifth-raters were often assigned to interdict enemy shipping - meaning the prospect of prize money for the crew.

Fifth rate frigates were considered useful for their combination of manoeuvrability and fire-power, which, in theory, would allow them to outmanoeuvre an enemy of greater force and run down one of lesser force. It was for this reason that frigates of this sort were commonly used in patrol and to disrupt enemy shipping lanes much as heavy cruisers would later in history.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Rodger, N.A.M. "The Command of the Ocean, a Naval History of Britain 1649-1815", London (2004). ISBN 0-713-99411-8
* Bennett, G. "The Battle of Trafalgar", Barnsley (2004). ISBN 1-84415-107-7

External links