Rating system of the Royal Navy

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There are six rating articles (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th) in the rating system of the Royal Navy.

A contemporary diagram illustrating a first and a third-rate ship.

The rating system of the Royal Navy was used by the Royal Navy between the 1670s and early 19th century to categorise sailing warships according to their ability to stand in a line of battle and according to their number of guns. Cannon (large, smooth-bored, muzzle-loading guns) were counted, but not carronades (short guns which were half the weight of equivalent long guns), although rated vessels could carry up to twelve 24- or 32-pounder carronades. During the Napoleonic Wars the correlation between formal gun rating and actual number of long guns or carronades carried by any individual vessel was theoretical at best. Early definitions required a "ship" to have three square-rigged masts. Vessels with less than three masts were sloops or brigs. Vessels were also sometimes classified by her captain. For instance, if a brig were assigned a post-captain as her commander, she would instantly become a frigate as this was the smallest vessel considered acceptable.

When first established, first-rates were ships of exactly 100 guns, second-rates 90 guns, third-rates 70 guns, and fourth-rates 54–60 guns. As time passed, and different ships were built with greater or fewer numbers of guns, the term was expanded to include the ranges listed below.

Although the rating system was only used by the Royal Navy, British authors might still use "first-rate" when referring to the largest ships of other nations or "third-rate" to speak of a French seventy-four. By the end of the 18th century, the rating system had mostly fallen out of common use, ships of the line usually being characterized directly by their nominal number of guns, the numbers even being used as the name of the type, as in "a squadron of three seventy-fours".

The rating system did not handle vessels smaller than the sixth rate, the remainder simply being "unrated". The larger of the unrated vessels were generally called sloops (but be warned that nomenclature is quite confusing for unrated vessels, especially when dealing with the finer points of "brig", "sloop-of-war", "corvette" and "post-ship" and whether any particular vessel is one, the other, or several of these at once). Sixth-rate ships were generally useful as convoy escorts, for blockade duties and the carrying of dispatches; their small size made them a bit unsuited for the general cruising tasks the fifth-rate frigates did so well.

1 Rating system
2 Other uses
3 References
4 See also

[edit] Rating system

Type	Rate	Guns	Gun decks	Men	Displacement in tonnes	Notes
Ship of the line	1st Rate	100 or more	3 + forecastle and quarterdeck	850 to 875	> 2,000	The largest ships of the line. Tended to be slow and invariably expensive to operate. As a result, the few first-rates were typically reserved as admirals' flagships. The number of crew on a first rate was increased by 25 when used as the flagship of a full Admiral, by 20 for a Vice Admiral and 15 for a Rear Admiral.
	2nd Rate	90 to 98	3 + forecastle and quarterdeck	700 to 750	about 2,000	Had lighter guns on their middle and upper decks than first rates. Powerful and able to fight in the center of a line of battle, second-rates were sometimes criticised for being slow and hard to maneuver. Where a first-rate vessel was considered too expensive or vulnerable to risk, a second-rate often served as a flagship.
	3rd Rate	64 to 80	2	500 to 650	1,300–1,600	Had two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Included the 74-gun ship, the most popular size of large ship for navies of several different nations. It was an easier ship to handle than a first or second rate ship, but still possessed enough firepower to potentially destroy any single opponent. It was also cheaper to operate.
Frigate	4th Rate	50 to 60	2	320 to 420	about 1,000	A two-decker, but from the 18th century considered too weak to stand in the line of battle. The few that remained were relegated to convoy escort, or as flagships on far-flung stations. Some exceptionally large frigates also belonged in the fourth rate (The Royal Navy rated American "superfrigates" and their own larger frigates from 1813 in this category).
	5th Rate	32 to 40	1	200 to 300	700 to 1,450	The classic frigate. Acted as a fast scout, fairly powerful despatch vessel and signal relay ship for fleets; a convoy escort, independent cruiser and commerce-raider.
	6th Rate	20 to 28.	1	140 to 200	450 to 550	Included smaller 9 pounder (4 kg) armed frigates.
Sloop-of-war	Unrated	16 to 18	1	90 to 125	380
Gun-brig or Cutter	Unrated	6 to 14	1	5 to 25	< 220

In 1817, the Royal Navy introduced a new rating system which included carronades in the count.

The rating system was again modified later based more on the size of the crew.

[edit] Other uses

The term first-rate has passed into general usage, as an adjective used to mean something of the best or highest quality available. Second-rate and Third-rate are also used as adjectives to mean that something is of inferior quality.

[edit] References

Michael Philips, Notes on Sailing Warships, 2000.
Military Heritage did a feature on frigates and included the British Rating System (John D. Gresham, Military Heritage, February 2002, Volume 3, No.4, pp. 12 to 17 and p. 87).