u/Veqq

I'm curious how naval architecture, victual load, gun placement etc. evolved over this period and how effective older ships/designs were by the Napoleonic wars.

The Britannia in particular was plagued by problems:

> To speed up construction and economise, the English used local oak that had not sufficiently dried. The timber soon began to warp and rot.

So hopefully other first-rate ships of the time make for more fair examples (and were built in far larger numbers). Reading about the English and Dutch navies towards 1688, I was shocked/impressed at the construction rates and sizes in so early a time:

> despite a series of sixty-four medium-heavy Dutch ships being constructed up to 1661. From that year onwards building a second series of seventy-six on average even heavier Dutch vessels, including 80-gunners