Ships of 1812

As I said in a previous post, I've been studying the War of 1812, spending a lot of time on the naval combats which ensued during the contest. I have a great interest in the different types of ships used during the Age of Sail, specifically in this time period, the Napoleonic Era. In this article I intend to list different types of ships, mostly those used during the War of 1812, and I will compare effectiveness between the different models.

Before I do this you must know that there are great differences of opinions upon these matters, and throughout the ages different terms have meant different things to different nations. Hopefully, however, at least these general classifications will be of help.

Sloop

The smallest vessel used in warfare was normally the sloop, which is often called a sloop-of-war to differentiate it from types not used in battle. The term embraces a number of ship types, because most combat vessels smaller than twenty guns were grouped together under the name of "sloop." Sometimes they had only one mast, but this was not uniformly the case. Their use was primarily for communications, intelligence, and other small work, not being large enough to take their place in a line of battle.

Two types of sloops are the "brig sloop" and the "ship sloop." The brig sloop contained two square-rigged masts, but still only one deck. The term "ship sloop" may be confusing, but it is due to the common practice of reserving the term "ship" to a vessel that has three masts or more. As you probably guessed, the ship sloop has at least three masts, and one deck.

Sloop-of-war, USS Constellation

Brig

Next in line is the brig, (a true brig, not a brig sloop,) containing two square-rigged masts, but still only one deck. The dividing line between sloops and brigs is very thin and hard to determine. Brigs were much more common to be used in actual battle operations, and were known for speed and maneuverability. Nowadays, the prisons aboard ships are called brigs, which may be confusing. It does not mean that a brig in the Age of Sail was a prison ship, although most prison ships were brigs. This is probably the case because the brig contains more room for prisoners than a sloop, without depriving the fleet of a really powerful fighting vessel.

The brig is a version of a brigantine, a slightly different craft, but not dissimilar enough to warrant a separate section in this article. A very famous brigantine is the Mary Celeste, which became a so-called "ghost ship" when it was discovered sailing towards Gibraltar with its entire crew missing, but no marks of bloodshed, mutiny, theft, or anything else. There are a number of very interesting hypothesis about the fate of the crew, but it remains one of the biggest maritime mysteries ever.

The brig, USS Niagra

Frigate

The Frigate is more powerful than a brig, being a two-decker, with at least three masts. The famous USS Constitution was a frigate. It's interesting to note that during the War of 1812, British frigates were ordered not to attack American frigates, unless they had a ratio of at least 2:1, because of our superior weight of metal. Frigates were very popular fighting ships, and used often in the Napoleonic Wars.

The frigate, USS Constitution

Ship-of-the-Line

This term is derived from the actions of these ships, which fought line against line, broadside to broadside. In this type of fighting, the goal was to have the heaviest metal and strongest ship. They would blast at each other until unable to return fire. Ships-of-the-line had multiple decks, two, three, sometimes even four, and many masts. They were the real "queens of the sea."

Ship-of-the-Line, HMS Victory

Throughout the ages there have been many other types of ships, and different classification systems, so I want to emphasize that this information is concerning the time period of the Napoleonic Era.

Tutela ex Vulnero,

John