Rules for Counting Warships, 1494–1860

Abstract

Earlier mention has been made in Chapter 2 of the analytical convenience provided by the tendencies toward standardising warships which resulted in the development of the ship-of-the-line, the capital warship of the mid-seventeenth to the first half of the nineteenth centuries. Nevertheless, this period constitutes less than half and closer to a third of the five centuries in question. Clearly, the operationalisation procedures will have to go beyond simply indicating an intention to count ships-of-the-line. For that matter, there are also some comparability problems ‘hidden’ in the ship-of-the-line concept. The procedures will also have to be sufficiently flexible to be able to take into account changes in naval technology — predominantly in terms of gunnery.