A ship-rigged vessel has three masts, all of them square-rigged. Fighting ships are classed as ships of the line, frigates or sloops, and more finely specified by their "rate", based on the number of guns they carry. Generally, if I only give the number of guns the ship is a ship of the line.
Under the rating system a first-rate carried a hundred or more guns, a second-rate from 90 to 98, a third-rate from 64 to 88, a fourth-rate 44 to 62, a fifth rate 32 to 42, and a sixth-rate 20 to 30. Effectively sixth-rates are sloops, fifth-rates are frigates, and the rest ships of the line although some older frigates mounted only 28 and by the time of Napoleonic wars a fourth-rate was little use in the line.
Frigates and upwards are post-ships - i.e. commanded by a post-captain: sloops are commanded by a master & commander (rank equivalent to the modern Commander). Smaller vessels are commanded by lieutenants, though the Royal Navy was somewhat flexible in this: however any small vessel commanded by a master & commander was rated as a sloop, irrepective of her rig (v. Aubrey's
Sophie, a sloop when he is aboard, a brig when he isn't).
For more detail, see the section on rigs. Briefly, the commonest vessels encountered other than ships are
- brigs (square-rigged but with only fore and main masts)
- brigantines
(fore and mainmasts: square-rigged on the fore, fore-and-aft on the main
- schooners
(fore and main masts, both fore-and-aft rigged)
- ketches
(notably bomb vessels: main and mizzen masts, both fore-and-aft). A ketch is distinguished from a yawl in that the yawl's mizzen is stepped aft of the helm.
- cutters
(one mast, fore-and-aft rigged). The word cutter is used to refer either to an independent vessel (v. Ramage's Kathleen) or to the largest of a ship's boats.
The distinction between brigs and brigantines is not rigidly adhered to, largely because vessels like
Sophie carried either a fore-and-aft or a square mainsail, sometimes wearing both at once, just as ships frequently (if not usually) wore a fore-and-aft "driver" mizzen sail instead of the square course.
A two-masted vessel deliberately rigged so that she could wear either fore-and-aft or square sails on the main - just to complicated the issue - was known as a 'snow', though snows were more commonly merchant vessels (but see Lewrie's
Shrike in 'The King's Commission').
Barques (fore and main masts square-rigged, the mizzen fore-and-aft) and barquentines (foremast square, main and mizzen fore-and-aft) were rare at the time and the multi-masted monster barques, barquentines and schooners of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were unheard of, since they are impractical in wooden vessels.
The distinction between fore-and-aft and square-rigged masts was not so clear at the time as later, since topsails on fore-and-aft rigged masts were normally square, even in cutters, the gaff topsail being indeed against Royal Navy regulations.
At the turn of the century, the Navy numbered some 72 ships of the line (half of them 74s) plus 16 fourth rates no longer able to stand in the line, 81 frigates, 23 sloops, 58 armed vessels of 16-18 guns (and of course hundreds of other smaller vessels).
Note on types of vessel