Posted by Adam Quinan on April 01, 2004 at 23:02:04 from 66.185.85.76 user Adam.
In Reply to: Re: "Master and Commander" posted by Laurence Monkhouse on April 01, 2004 at 18:18:09:
I can't recall Surprise going yard arm to yardarm wiith a 74 in any of the books. In HMS Surprise in the action with Linois, the whole point is that Surprise avoids being brought to close action with the French broadsides. At the Nile one British broadside at a French frigate shattered and sunk her. Normally frigates did not take part in actions with ships of the line because they were so out classed.
One frigate action where the ship of the line was destroyed was Indefatigable and Amazon vs. Droits de l'homme. Sir Edward Pellew and Captain Reynolds ensured that their ships kept away from the broadsides of the French ship which was also hampered because they couldn't open the lower gun ports because the seas were too high. Eventually Droits de l'homme and Amazon ran aground but Indefatigable was able to claw her way off the leeshore.