Faced with this challenge, the British Admiralty recognised that in one area at least they needed to make a radical improvement: impressive though they were as gun platforms, the sailing qualities of most of their three-deckers were deficient, and many British admirals commanding detached squadrons chose to fly their flag in large, fast two-decker 80s rather than the ponderous three-deckers. Almost the sole exception among British First Rates to this dissatisfaction was the new Caledonia which, as the first ship designed from the start to carry 120 guns, combined maximum firepower with superb sailing qualities. To British naval officers she was the ultimate battlefleet vessel, and unsurprisingly the Admiralty decided to make her the model for all future three-deckers rather than the relatively unsatisfactory Surveyors’ class.

Coupled with this was a recognition that in future fleet actions firepower would be at a premium. The three-decker, with its enhanced weight of broadside and the extra height of its upper deck battery above the waterline, increasingly offered a better option than even the best of the two-deckers. The expansion of the two-decker had also been perceived to have reached the limits of structural integrity within the restrictions of contemporary technology. Thus instead of simply being the flagship of the battlefleet, the First Rate was to form a significant proportion of the battle line.

THE marine artist George Chambers made this rapid sketch on the spot at the launch of the Royal George on 22 September 1827 at Chatham. By its very nature it lacks detail, but conveys well the excitement of a First Rate’s launch – in this case enhanced by the royal presence of the Duke of Clarence, later William IV but at this time the Lord High Admiral. Note that the slips are now covered by roofs that can still be seen in the preserved area of Chatham Historic Dockyard.
[NMM PW5601]

Naturally, this meant that the number of First Rates had to be significantly expanded. The new Board of Admiralty under Viscount Melville which took office in March 1812 found that two new First Rates (to be named Britannia and Prince Regent) and two new Second Rate three-deckers had been ordered on 6 January of that year, together with six 74-gun Third Rates and a couple of smaller vessels.

Although the war against Napoleon still had more than two years to run, the naval struggle was clearly at a stage of blockade, convoys and small ship actions rather than set-piece fleet engagements, and thoughts were already turning to the post-war scene. With the need to return to peacetime levels of defence expenditure, the new administration would have to think in terms of retrenchment; and while frigates and lesser warships would continue to be ordered, few additional battlefleet units would be required.

The planned reduction of the battlefleet to peacetime levels, which began with the cessation of warfare in 1814, was interrupted briefly by Napoleon’s return to power for what became known as the Hundred Days. On 30 March the Admiralty issued an order for four First Rates (the Royal Sovereign, San Josef, Ville de Paris and Queen Charlotte) to be fitted for service.

The 1812 order for the new Britannia at Plymouth was intended from the start as a follow-on to that dockyard’s highly successful Caledonia, but the order for the Prince Regent was not immediately allocated, the instruction not being sent to Chatham until 1814. At this time the Admiralty intended this First Rate to be a 100-gun vessel similar to the Royal George design of 1782 (the Queen Charlotte was mentioned as a model), but the Surveyor pointed out that this design was now obsolescent, and asked for a 120-gun ship instead. He proposed a fourth ship to the Surveyors’ (Nelson class) design, but by now the Admiralty had already endorsed the Caledonia as the model for future 120-gun ships, so the order for the Prince Regent was altered accordingly. The decision was further cemented by the appointment of Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Byam Martin as the new Controller of the Navy; he accepted the offer of the post on 11 November 1815, and in December he was temporarily appointed Deputy Controller until the retirement of his predecessor on 24 February. Byam Martin had long advocated that all future three-deckers should be to one common design – the draught of the Caledonia – and this now became the navy’s policy.

The small three-deckers which were now re-classed do not form part of this study, but they are listed here for the record. Three – the Saint George (ex Britannia), Victory and Royal Sovereign – were former First Rates that had been down-graded to 98-gun ships, and were thus restored to their former rank, now as 104-gun ships. The new additions to the ranks of the First Rates were: the Ocean (of 1805), now classed as 110 guns; the Impregnable (of 1810) as 106 guns; and the Barfleur (1768), Glory (1788), Prince (1788), Prince of Wales (1794), Neptune (1797), Temeraire (1798), Dreadnought (1801), Boyne (1810) and Union (1811), all as 104 guns. Three further Second Rates were on order: the Trafalgar, raised to 106 guns; and the final pair of a 2417-ton design ordered in 1812, the Princess Charlotte and London, both re-classed as 110 guns. The London was renamed Royal Adelaide in 1827, prior to her eventual launch in 1828.

UNLIKE her sisters (except for the Caledonia herself) the Britannia was neither cut down to a two-decker nor fitted for steam. On returning from the Mediterranean in early 1855, she was placed in Ordinary at Portsmouth, and that July was fitted as a hospital hulk. At the start of 1859 she was chosen to become the first training ship devoted entirely to naval cadets, under the command of Captain Robert Harris. Initially she was moored in Haslar Creek, Gosport, but in 1862 she was moved to Portland, and a year later to Dartmouth, where she arrived on 29 September 1863. In 1865 she was joined by the two-decker Hindostan, and this illustration shows both hulks moored in the Dart, the two later connected by a covered gangway. In March 1869 the Britannia became surplus to requirements (being replaced by the First Rate Prince of Wales, which then took over her name as well as her role). The redundant hulk was moved to Plymouth, where she was completed being taken to pieces that November. However, the ship’s name was preserved when officer training was transferred ashore to Britannia Royal Naval College in 1905.
[NMM PU6244]

Alarm at the newly reviving French navy, particularly with its new programme of 100-gun two-deckers, now led the Navy Board to propose strengthening the Caledonia class ships under construction by replacing the 24-pounders on their middle and upper decks by the newly available lightweight 32-pounders. The extra weight that this would entail led Byam Martin to recommend that the new 120-gun ships should be widened (where the stage of their construction allowed) by some 6 to 9 inches; eventually, a complete foot was agreed. This alteration in the design raised the breadth to 54½ft and their burthen to nearly 2700 tons. The Royal George was far too advanced in construction to allow this, but the succeeding 120-gun ships were all altered accordingly. In November 1826 the Admiralty also decided to follow the French example by ordering their own stretched two-deckers – the Nile class of three 90-gun Second Rates (Rodney, Nile and London) were built to the same dimensions as the Caledonia, of which they were therefore in effect a razee version (this French term was applied to ships cut down by the removal of one complete deck).

In 1830 Byam Martin urged the Admiralty to place orders for further 120-gun ships, to bring the establishment total up to the level of twenty-four First Rates which he advocated. The intended new ships were designed to be lengthened by some 5ft from the Caledonia class (while retaining the same breadth as the broadened ships of that class). The ship recently ordered at Portsmouth would become a fifth unit to this new design. The additional length was required, in the Surveyor’s view, to allow for a greater spacing between the lower deck gunports, so that they could comfortably accommodate the new 63cwt model 32-pounders.

The Caledonia class (Rule design) – construction history

The Caledonia class (Rule design) – dimensions in feet and inches

Britannia

The Britannia was launched in October 1820, and by 20 December she had completed fitting for Ordinary, at a total cost of £111,6:[A-Z]30. She was fitted as a Guard Ship (for £13,943) in December 1822, and commissioned in October 1823 under Captain W H Bruce, as the flagship of Sir Alexander Cochrane. She was paid off in the following April, but promptly recommissioned on 4 April under Captain Philip Pipon, as the flagship of Sir James Saumarez. In turn, on 30 April 1827 command passed to Captain Edward Hawker, with the Earl of Northesk raising his flag in the ship.

The First Rate was refitted for sea service in September 1829 (with a further expenditure of £26,172 including earlier ‘making good’ some defects) and was recommissioned under Captain George Burdett, as flagship of Sir Pulteney Malcolm for the Mediterranean Fleet. She was refitted as a flagship at Portsmouth in February 1836 (for £10,661). She was fitted again at Portsmouth from August to November 1840, at a cost of £3907).

As the move towards an all steam-assisted battlefleet gathered pace in the late 1850s, it was decided to cut down all of the Broadened Caledonia class from three to two decks, lengthen them aft by 11ft and fit 500nhp engines and single screws. Four ships were designated in August 1858 to undergo this process, and another four in February 1859. Five of these ships were Caledonia class, while the Queen had also derived from that design and the Nelson was the best of the preceding Surveyors’ class (the total was made up by the Rodney, converted from a two-decker 92-gun ship, albeit of similar dimensions). In being razeed in this way, the ships obviously ceased to be First Rates, but their conversion schedules are tabulated below for sake of completeness. A further Caledonia class ship, the Prince Regent, which had already been razeed in 1845–46, was similarly ordered to be fitted as a screw battleship a year later. Initially designated 90-gun ships, two bow-chasers were replaced with a pivot gun on the forecastle for a total of 89 guns.

Prince Regent

The Prince Regent was in great measure fitted for sea while still on the stocks, and had been commissioned on 6 December 1822 by her first captain, William Henry Webley Parry, as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell, C-in-C at the Nore. Following her launching in 1823, she completed fitting as a Guard Ship by September, for a total cost of £119,283. Her only commission as a First Rate was to last until 1832, mostly spent based at Chatham. On 19 December 1825 Captain Constantine Richard Moorsom took command, as the ship became the flagship of his father, Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Moorsom, again the C-in-C at the Nore. In turn, command passed on 24 July 1827 to Captain George Poulett, as flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Blackwood, C-in-C at the Nore. Captain James Whitley Deans Dundas became her commanding officer on 6 August 1830, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral William Parker, serving in the Tagus until early 1832, whence the ship returned to Portsmouth, paying off into Ordinary in February.

The Prince Regent was by 1843 found to be very crank, and it was proposed that she be cut down to two decks, and fitted as a 92-gun ship along the lines of the Nile class Second Rates. She was repaired, razeed and fitted at Portsmouth (for a total cost of £53,815) between March 1844 and September 1847, being re-rated as a 90-gun ship in March 1847. Technically, she ceased to be a subject of this volume, but for the sake of continuity her subsequent career follows. She was recommissioned on 7 December 1847 under Captain William Fanshawe Martin (the eldest son of the former Controller), and deployed to the Mediterranean from December 1847 until early 1851. Captain Martin being promoted rear-admiral in March 1851, the Prince Regent became his flagship, and Robert Harris became her new captain. On 20 May 1852 Captain Frederick Hutton took command, flying the flag of Vice-Admiral Richard Curry, and the ship served with the Western Squadron until December 1853. Captain Henry Smith took over on 7 March 1854, and during the Russian War the Prince Regent was deployed to the Baltic in early 1855. On return to Portsmouth, she was once again paid off into Ordinary. She was converted to a screw battleship in 1860, finally rejoining her former Caledonia class sisters which were razeed at the same time. But she was never recommissioned, being finally taken to pieces in 1873.

Razees of 120-gun ships to 89-gun Second Rates

The ship ordered as Neptune was renamed Royal George on 12 February 1823. Upon launching, she was fitted for Ordinary, roofed over forwards and aft, and sailed on 3 December 1827 to Sheerness, where her hull was doubled for protection. Her total cost including fitting out to this stage had been £87,418. In February 1833 the doubling was removed, but she remained in Ordinary until 30 October 1852, when it was ordered that she should be fitted as a screw ship of the line, which was carried out initially at Chatham (between April 1852 and June 1853), then at Sheerness (until December 1853) and finally at Plymouth (completing March 1854), at a total cost of £64,236.

Unlike her sisters, she was not lengthened, and only received a 400nhp engine compared with the 500nhp engines fitted in the modified group, but retained her 120-gun armament and three-decker status as a First Rate. The Royal George finally commissioned in October 1853 under Captain Henry John Codrington, and sailed from Spithead on 11 March 1854 with Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Napier’s fleet for service against the Russians in the Baltic. By her second year in the Baltic, she had been reduced to 102 guns. After returning to the UK, she took part in the Spithead Review on 23 April 1856, leading the fleet past the queen’s yacht Victoria and Albert, as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir George Francis Seymour, the Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth.

By 1860 she was back in Ordinary at Plymouth, and on 9 March it was decided that she was no longer effective as a three-decker, but was to follow her erstwhile sisters in being cut down as a 89-gun Second Rate. She was razeed at Devonport between 2 April 1860 and 4 January 1861. Like the other five, in her new form she carried thirty-two 8in shell guns (of 65cwt) on her lower deck, thirty-four 32-pounder MLSB (muzzle-loading smooth bore) guns of 56cwt on her upper deck, and twenty-two 32-pounder MLSB guns (but of 42cwt) on her quarterdeck and forecastle, with a single 68-pounder MLSB gun (of 95cwt) on a pivot mounting on the centreline. Later in 1861 she was reduced to 86 guns, then to 78 guns in 1863, and later to 72. In March 1865 she became a Coast Guard vessel at Kingstown before ending her career as a receiving hulk at Portsmouth. On 23 January 1875 she was sold to Messrs Castle at Charlton for breaking up.

Saint George

The ship was launched in August 1840, having cost £76,009, and placed in Ordinary. Between January 1843 and October 1845 she was converted to an Advanced Ship (for £17,095) and was fitted out as a Guard Ship (for £9301) in July 1850. During the Russian War she was finally fitted for sea in February/March 1854 (for £8286) and commissioned in February 1854 under Captain Harry Eyres, for the Baltic.

On 21 August 1858 she was taken in hand at Plymouth for conversion to a screw battleship, the work being completed on 19 March 1859, following which she had a 500nhp engine fitted before being handed over to the First Division of the Steam Ordinary on 12 July. The Saint George was recommissioned in June 1860. In May 1864 she became a Guard Ship at Plymouth under Captain E B Price, now with just 72 guns. She was sold to Messrs Castle in 1883 to be taken to pieces.

Neptune

The Neptune had cost £73,595 to build when launched in September 1832. In December 1832 she was fitted for Ordinary, and housing was built over the waist. Like most of her sisters, she was not to see any action until the 1850s. In October 1844 repairs to her were effected at Portsmouth (for £12,858) and in December 1852 she was fitted out there as a Guard Ship (for £10,314). With the outbreak of the Russian War, she was again refitted for service (for £10,314) between June 1853 and March 1854, and commissioned under Captain Frederick Hutton for service in the Baltic, as the flagship of Rear-Admiral Armar Lowry Corry, remaining in commission until 1857.

A graphite sketch by Sir Oswald Brierly of the Royal William later in life after conversion to a screw ship in 1859–60. In the process she was cut down to a two-decker Second Rate of 90 guns. The majority of her sisters (apart from the Caledonia herself and the Britannia) followed suit. As such, their complement was reduced to 830 men, and they carried thirty-two 8-inch shell guns on the lower deck, thirty-four 32-pounders (of 56cwt) on the upper deck, and twenty-six 32-pounders (of 42cwt each) on the quarterdeck and forecastle, together with a single 68-pounder mounted on a centreline pivot in the bows. An intriguing detail of the sketch is a bullock being hoisted aboard from the main yardarm.
[NMM PU9328]

In August 1858 it was decided to convert her to screw propulsion, along with her sister-ships Saint George and Trafalgar, and the slightly more modern Queen. The process involved docking the vessels and lengthening them, at the same time cutting them down by a deck so that they would emerge as 90-gun Second Rates.

The conversion of the Neptune, at Portsmouth Dockyard, was completed on 7 March 1859, although fitting her for sea lasted until 6 August. In December 1859 she was recommissioned under Captain Frederick Archibald Campbell for service in the Mediterranean. By 1865 she was back at Portsmouth, where she remained until, like others of her kind, she was sold to Messrs Castle, shipbreakers at Charlton, for dismantling.

Royal William

The Royal William was launched in April 1833, having been built at a cost of £78,586. She was then coppered (for £2678) and jury-rigged (for £2835) before sailing on 26 June 1837 for Plymouth, where she was fitted for £19,125. In 1854 she underwent a refit there (for £14,335) to ready her for service in the Russian War, and was commissioned in February 1854 under Captain John Kingcome for the Baltic fleet. Returning to Plymouth in February 1855, she raised the flag of Rear-Admiral Sir James Hanway Plumridge, as a Guard Ship there.

A rigged model of the Royal Albert as originally designed by Lang. Concerns about the design principles of Sir William Symonds led to this order for a ship which did not derive from the Surveyor’s now contentious Queen draught. The ship would have been the largest pure sailing warship ever built for the Royal Navy, but she was re-ordered as a steam screw liner while the ship was still on the stocks.
[NMM F7980-3]

Waterloo

The Waterloo was launched in June 1833, and sailed on 19 July 1833 to Sheerness, where her waist was housed over and she was placed in Ordinary. She had cost £64,629 to build, plus £5924 for housing. She was fitted as an Advanced Ship at Sheerness between October 1841 and March 1843 (at a cost of £12,848) and then fitted as a flagship there between October and December 1851 (for £16,497). In December 1853 she was commissioned under Captain Lord Frederick Kerr, and hoisted the flag of Vice-Admiral William Gordon in July 1854.

In April 1859 she was taken in hand at Sheerness for conversion to a screw battleship. She was undocked in April 1860 on completion of the work, and in the following April she was fitted for the Second Division of the Steam Reserve. On 27 February 1862 her name was changed to Conqueror, and, after spending a further 21 months at Sheerness, she recommissioned under Captain William Garnham Luard for service in the Far East. In early September 1864, she took part in the bombardment of Shimonoseki, at the far western point of Honshu. The Conqueror returned to Sheerness in 1866, moving to Chatham in 1870. On 11 August 1876 she was renamed again, becoming the Marine Society training ship Warspite, a role which she continued to fill until she was accidentally burnt on the Thames on 20 January 1918.

Trafalgar

The Trafalgar was the final ship to be completed to the Caledonia’s design, being launched in June 1841 and having cost £75,797 to build. As with her sisters, she was promptly taken downriver to Sheerness and fitted for Ordinary (reserve), at a cost of £1283. She was fitted as an Advanced Ship there, a task which was completed in October 1844 for £17,954, including a remodelling of her stern structure. Still at Sheerness, the Trafalgar was then fitted as a flagship between February and May 1845 (for £18,838). In October 1846 she commissioned under Captain John Neale Nott for the Channel Fleet, then sailing to Lisbon as the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Augustus Collier. Returning to Sheerness in July 1850, she spent the next twelve months refitting (for £9214), before passing into reserve again. In 1854 the ship was recommissioned under Captain Henry Francis Grenville and sailed for the Black Sea, where she took part in the bombardment of Sebastopol on 11 October 1854.

In August 1858 she was ordered to be converted at Chatham into a screw battleship. After the work was completed there, the Trafalgar proceeded to Sheerness where the new engine was fitted, and she was commissioned under Captain Edward Gennys Fanshawe in June 1859, for Channel service. In May 1865 she recommissioned as a Guard Ship for Queensferry under Captain George Hancock. By 1870 the ship was a sea-going training ship for cadets, and three years later she became a training ship for boys at Portland, being renamed Boscawen, a role she maintained until the next century. She was finally sold to Messrs Castle on 10 July 1906 for breaking up.

THE QUEEN CLASS

The final ship ordered to the broadened Caledonia class design was to undergo considerable changes even before being laid down. This ship was ordered from Portsmouth Dockyard in 1827 as the Royal Frederick, but in 1831 work on the frames intended for her construction, which were one-seventh complete, were suspended in order that the Portsmouth yard could concentrate on the new Fourth Rates there.

In 1832 the Navy Board was abolished, and warship construction and maintenance became a direct responsibility of the Admiralty. Captain William Symonds was newly appointed as the Surveyor of the Navy, although many of the practical aspects of ship design devolved upon his assistant, John Edye. Symonds was a fervent believer that speed under sail was paramount and that even ships of the line would benefit from finer hull forms than had been thought necessary by previous designers. On 2 September 1833 Symonds produced a new design for a First Rate of only 110 guns, and the following day saw the Royal Frederick re-ordered to this plan. The revised gun establishment for this ship now became twenty-eight 32-pounders of 55cwt and two 68-pounders of 60cwt on the lower deck, an identical allocation on the middle deck, and thirty-two medium 32-pounders (of 49cwt) on the upper deck. The armament on the quarterdeck and forecastle was reduced to twelve short 32-pounders (of 40cwt) and two 68-pounder carronades (36cwt), with four 18-pounder carronades (10cwt) on the roundhouse.

These changes required a drastic alteration to her frames, of which some three-quarters had already been cut but not yet erected. Nevertheless, it was agreed that these should be reconverted. On 12 September a second ship was ordered to this draught, to be similarly built at Portsmouth and named the Royal Sovereign. On 3 October a further pair were ordered, to be built at Pembroke and given the names Victoria and Algiers.

This situation did not last long, and the confused record of the Programme of Works over the next few years reflects a general uncertainty over the Symondite designs. In 1835 the Algiers was reinstated as a 110-gun ship, while the Victoria was not mentioned. In 1836 the Victoria was again shown as an intended 74-gun two-decker, while the Algiers remained a 110-gun ship. In 1837 the names were reversed, with the Victoria now being the planned three-decker, but by 1839 both Pembroke ships were again programmed at 110 guns (5 February 1839). To add to the confusion, the Portsmouth pair were renamed on 12 April 1839; the first ship – which was to be launched on 15 May – became the Queen, in honour of the new monarch, while the suspended vessel became the Royal Frederick instead. Finally, on 5 December 1839 the Algiers was removed for the last time from the list of three-deckers, when she was re-ordered as a two-decker Second Rate to the lines of the 90-gun Albion.

The final armament of the Queen was somewhat different from that envisaged at the start of construction. She carried twenty-four 32-pounders of 56cwt and six 65cwt 8-inch shell guns on her lower deck, twenty-six 32-pounders and four 8-inch shell guns on her middle deck (of the same weights), thirty 32-pounders (of 41cwt) on her upper deck, and twenty 32-pounders (six of 32cwt and fourteen of 25cwt) on her quarterdeck and forecastle.

Having cost £70,472 to build and another £7257 to fit for sea, she entered service on 1 October 1840, under Captain John William Montagu. She was refitted as flagship for the Mediterranean in November 1841, at a cost of £17,408. She served during the next few years successively flying the flags of Vice-Admiral Sir Edward William Campbell Rich Owen in the Mediterranean, of Admiral Sir John West in the Channel (based at Devonport), and of Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker in the Mediterranean again. She was refitted as a flagship once more at Plymouth for £13,095 between May and August 1849, and reclassed as a 116-gun ship. Recommissioned under Captain Frederick Thomas Michell from 2 July 1852, the Queen took part in the bombardment of Sebastopol on 11 October 1854; command passed on 11 July 1855 to Captain Robert Fanshawe Stopford before the ship returned from the Mediterranean to pay off on 6 September 1856.

The Queen Class (110 guns) – construction history

Table 45: The Queen Class (110 guns) – dimensions in feet and inches

Four further First Rates were ordered in 1842 and 1844, originally intended to be 110-gun ships to the design of the Queen. The first (Prince of Wales) was ordered from Portsmouth Dockyard on 14 March 1842, two more (Windsor Castle and Royal Sovereign) were ordered from Pembroke and Portsmouth Dockyards respectively on 19 February 1844, and another (Marlborough) was ordered from Portsmouth Dockyard on 20 March 1844. However, on 29 June 1848 all four – together with the Royal Frederick (building at Portsmouth) and Victoria (building at Pembroke) – were re-ordered to amended designs. At this date, only the first of the quartet (Prince of Wales) had actually been laid down (on 10 June 1848). Of the remaining three, the Royal Sovereign was laid down on 17 December 1848, the Windsor Castle in May 1849 and the Marlborough on 1 September 1850.

Among the Queen’s intended sister-ships, the Royal Frederick and Victoria, like the Queen herself, were reclassed as 116-gun ships in 1849 while still on the stocks, and at the same time those ordered in 1842 and 1844 were rerated as 120 guns. Little more would happen to either the Royal Frederick or Victoria until February 1857, when an order was issued for both to be converted to screw propulsion.

MUCH of the indecision and official changes of mind can be followed in the annotations and crossings-out on this Queen class draught originally produced for 110-gun ships to be called Royal Frederick, Royal Sovereign, Victoria and Algiers, to a design of 2 September 1833. The first became the Queen and the Royal Sovereign was then renamed Royal Frederick but work on the frames of this ship was suspended in May 1834. She was finally laid down in 1841 but spent many years on the stocks. In 1849 she was reclassed as a 116-gun ship, but in 1857 when she was still unfinished she was ordered to complete as a screw ship (without any lengthening of her hull) and in 1859 it was decided that in the process she would be cut down to an 86-gun two-decker; she was again renamed the Frederick William in January 1860, prior to her launch on 24 March 1860. This draught bears the dates 18 July 1837 and 15 September 1842; a further note of 17 November 1848 states ‘This sketch is now applicable only to the Royal Frederick & Victoria.’ Note that the rake of the stern is successively reduced in two modifications, by Peake in 1842 (in red) and a later anonymous alteration (in blue).
[NMM L2055]

IN this draught of the 110-gun Queen the body plan reveals the sharp lines of the Symondite form, more like that of a frigate than the squarer capacious shape traditionally favoured for three-deckers. This tended to make Symonds’s designs fast under sail, but they were often criticised for not providing steady gun-platforms. The stern was heavily raked (which in service proved vulnerable in a seaway) and two open galleries with iron balustrades have been added later. She shows solid barricades on forecastle, quarterdeck and roundhouse. This was the first class designed for an all 32-pounder armament (apart from the six largest guns firing 68-pounder shot, and of course the four 18-pounder carronades on the roundhouse), although the 32-pounders were of differing weights (55cwt on lower and middle decks, 49cwt on the upper deck, and short 40cwt guns the upperworks).
[NMM J8088]

Twelve days after the order was first placed for the Prince of Wales, another was assigned to Woolwich Dockyard for what was to be the largest pure sailing warship ever designed for the Royal Navy. The hostility of the First Naval Lord, Cockburn, to Symonds’s designs led to a decision to commission a brand new design which did not derive from the Surveyor’s controversial Queen. Oliver Lang, the Master Shipwright at Woolwich, prepared a draught that was essentially an enlarged version of the Trafalgar of 1820, the last pre-Symondite three-decker. It provided for a ship with a length of 220ft (16ft longer than the Queen) able to carry 120 guns and 1000 men.

On 24 March 1851 the design was revised to enlarge the ship to 3463 tons by lengthening her 12ft 9in aft, but in less than a year a further change of plan resulted in the ship – the Royal Albert – being re-ordered as a screw battleship, and her subsequent history appears in the next chapter.

The Royal Albert (120 guns) – construction history

The Royal Albert (120 guns) – dimensions in feet and inches