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In the British Royal Navy, a Second-rate was a ship of the line mounting 90 to 98 guns on three gun decks. The rating system of the British Royal Navy was used by the British Royal Navy between the middle of the 17th century and the middle of the 19th century to categorise sailing A ship-of-the-line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th century through the mid-19th century to take part in the the naval tactic known as the Line of battle First-rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for its largest ships of the line, those mounting 100 guns or more on three gundecks In the British Royal Navy, a third-rate was a Ship of the line mounting 64 to 80 guns typically built with two Gun decks (thus the related term In the British Royal Navy, a fourth-rate was during the first half of the 18th century a Ship of the line mounting from 46 up to 60 guns For the bird see Frigatebird. A frigate /ˈfrɪgɪt/ is a warship In Britain's Royal Navy during the classic age of fighting sail a fifth-rate was the penultimate class of warships in a hierarchal system of six "ratings" based Sixth-rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for small warships mounting between 20 and 24 nine-pounder guns on a single deck sometimes with guns on the upper works In the 18th and the earlier part of the 19th centuries a sloop-of-war was a small sailing Warship (also known as one of the Escort types with a single gun deck The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) A ship-of-the-line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th century through the mid-19th century to take part in the the naval tactic known as the Line of battle They were essentially smaller and hence cheaper versions of the three-decker First rates. First-rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for its largest ships of the line, those mounting 100 guns or more on three gundecks Like the First rates, they fought in the centre of the line of battle, and unlike the First rates, which were considered too valuable to risk in distant stations, the Second rates often served overseas as flagships. In Naval warfare, the line of battle is a tactic in which the ships of the fleet form a line end-to-end They had a reputation for poor handling and slow sailing.
Typically displacing around 2000 tons and carrying a crew of 750, the Second rates carried 32-pounder guns on the gundeck, with 18 pdrs instead of 24 pdrs on the middle deck, and 12 pdrs on the upper deck (rather than 18 or 24 prds on First rates). Both First and Second rates carried lighter guns or carronades on their forecastles and quarterdecks. The carronade was a short Smoothbore, Cast iron Cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an Ironworks Forecastle, also spelled fo'c's'le (ˈfoʊksəl originally meant the upper deck of a Sailing ship, forward of the Foremast.
The three-decker Second-rate was mainly a British type, and was not built by other European navies to any great degree. Apart from its unhandiness, in terms of sheer firepower it was matched or even over matched by the 80 and 74-gun two-decker Third-rates used by the French and Spanish navies instead. In the British Royal Navy, a third-rate was a Ship of the line mounting 64 to 80 guns typically built with two Gun decks (thus the related term The additional deck did, however, give the second-rate an advantage in close combat, and it had the further tactical advantage of sometimes being mistaken by the enemy for a first-rate which could possibly make enemy commanders reluctant to press an attack. First-rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for its largest ships of the line, those mounting 100 guns or more on three gundecks
The term second-rate has since passed into general usage as an adjective used to mean of suboptimal quality, or an unacceptable replacement for something that is first-rate. First-rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for its largest ships of the line, those mounting 100 guns or more on three gundecks
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