1719 - New Establishment in Britain

A new Establishment extends standardisation of warships to a larger number of dimensions – hence the constraints to the dockyard are tightened – and its range up to the top 100-gun ships. The model for the 100 is the late Royal Sovereign (1701).

The master shipwrights are still to produce their own plans, which means that, in spite of appearances, a vessel from Chatham is not a sistership for anyone from Deptford or Woolwich, even if tailored here and there to the same general specifications.

By the way, it is worth noting that, following Admiral Churchill’s precedent in 1706, the Navy Board practices guesswork and adds a little to the dimensions it specifies, once again without knowing, hit or miss.

Standardisation is given a try in France simultaneously. The dockyard of Toulon starts building a series of four identical 74-gun two-deckers on René Levasseur’s plans, the Duc d’Orléans class. The four ships are launched in a succession within 15 months in 1722-23.  The new French approach is drastically different from the British one : the Master Shipwright is left with design responsibility ; he is endowed with a contract to design and build a batch of vessels as per general specifications decided by the ministère de la marine. Ship qualities will be analysed at sea for a possible follow-up.

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IN RETROSPECT FROM TODAY

NOTE A - Outcome of this Establishment.

The Establishment of 1719 will generate a 100-gun ship in 1728, five 90-gun ones (1723-32), seven 80-gun ones (1722-35), twelve 70-gun ones (1721-34), ten 60-gun ones (1722-34), and fourteen 50-gun ones (1720-32) – forty-nine ships within sixteen years. Two other 60-gun ships endowed with slight differences are built in 1732 and 1735.

The total of 51 constructions is outstanding for a country at peace under the rule of Robert Walpole (†1745) between 1721 and 1742. As we know, Walpole and André Hercule de Fleury (†1743), Archbishop and French Chief Minister from 1726 to 1743, achieved to keep their countries at peace despite their colonial rivalry.

NOTE B - Comparison with France in terms of quantities.

Shipbuilding in Britain has now got a regular pace of three ships of the line a year at peace. In comparison, during this same period 1720-35, France launches one 110-gun ship in 1724, eleven 74-gun ones, ten 64-gun ones, one 60-gun one, one 58-gun one, five 50-gun ones – twenty-nine vessels. British supremacy is overwhelming : 3,500 guns are put to sea against 2,000.

It is even worse if we remind of the implementation of the precedent Establishment which put to sea sixty-two British vessels against eight French. For the two establishments, we may count 113 British ships of the line facing 37 French ones. Arms race has been won by far.

NOTE C - Compensation sought by the French.

The French shipbuilders seek excellence in each individual ship. It leads to the emergence of the emblematic seventy-four, that is the 74-gun ship of the line, as the right model to achieve the best combination of speed, staying power and fire power. The eleven French 74s built during the period are meant to forming the core of the line of battle. They are not yet of the definite seventy-four type which will come to life in 1736 with the Terrible designed by François Coulomb (†1751), but of a first model fitted with 26 ports for 36-pounders at the gun deck and 28 for 18-pounders at the upper deck. A French 74 of this primitive sort is already 150 tons larger than a British 80, and 70 tons lesser than a 90. The British 80 carries 26 guns of 32, 26 of 12 and 28 of 6, while her French opponent displays 26 guns of 36, 28 of 18 and 20 of 8. On her own, the French 64 is almost equivalent to a British 70.

Search for excellence leads to the construction of prototypes in succession. Serialization will therefore not be repeated in France before 1745, under the necessity of war, with two classes of three ships each to be built in Brest: Blaise Ollivier’s Monarque of 74 guns and Jacques-Luc Coulomb’s Lys of 64 guns.

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SUGGESTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brian Lavery – The Ship of the Line – London, 1983

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CREDIT

Willem van de Velde, the Younger - Royal Sovereign - Drawing, 1701 - © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich