Naval War of 1812 85 



was certainly as deceptive as another, so far as un 

 derrating went. 



The force of the statement that our large frigates 

 were disguised line-of-battle ships, of course de 

 pends entirely upon what the words "frigate" and 

 "line-of-battle ship" mean. When, on the loth of 

 August, 1653, De Ruyter saved a great convoy by 

 beating off Sir George Ayscough's fleet of 38 sail, 

 the largest of the Dutch admiral's "33 sail of the 

 line" carried but 30 guns and 150 men, and his own 

 flagship but 28 guns and 134 men. 20 The Dutch 

 book from which this statement is taken speaks in 

 differently of frigates of 18, 40, and 58 guns. 

 Toward the end of the eighteenth century the terms 

 had crystallized. Frigate then meant a so-called 

 single-decked ship ; it in reality possessed two decks, 

 the main, or gun-deck, and the upper one, which 

 had no name at all until our sailors christened it 

 spar-deck. The gun-deck possessed a complete bat 

 tery, and the spar-deck an interrupted one, mounting 

 guns on the forecastle and quarter-deck. At that 

 time all "two-decked" or "three-decked" (in reality 

 three and four-decked) ships were liners. But in 

 1812 this had changed somewhat; as the various 

 nations built more and more powerful vessels, the 

 lower rates of the different divisions were dropped. 



M "La Vie et les Actions Memorables du Sr. Michel de 

 Ruyter a Amsterdam, Chez Henry et Theodore Boom, 

 MDCLXXxvn." The work is by Barthelemy Pielat, a surgeon 

 in de Ruyter's fleet, and personally present during many of 

 his battles. It is written in French, but is in tone more 

 strongly anti-French than anti-English. 



