A Typical Line Ship Explained

This continuation of Naval History following on from: "Ship Of The Line"

To most people, the term "Sail of the Line" conjures up a mental picture of Nelson and Trafalgar,or of those far-distant wrecks of storm-beaten sailing ships. It is no false instinct that impels them. In many ways the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are the golden age of the sailing ship of the line.

In our explanation of a "Line" ship, we shall not find a "Line" ship very spacious, even if she was among the largest of her kind-a three decker. There would be much to stow, and there wouldn't be too much space in which to stow it.

A ship of no more than 2,000 tons weight, would have on board not far short of 1,000 officers and men, with all of their provisions, war materials, sailing gear and personel belongings. A ship of this size could have seven levels to accommodate all this; but there were not seven full-length decks.

There were four full decks, with one three-quarter deck above them. In addition, there was, below the lowest full deck, the hold, where much was stored; and, above all other decks, another very limited one which was (but not in name) a quarter deck in the most literal sense.

Ships of the Line

The Hold

The space in the belly of the ship below the lowest proper deck was the Hold, which, had it been empty, would have been the roomiest deck, but by no means the freshest, in the whole ship. But it was not empty.

The length of the masts,the great spread of canvas aloft, and the height of the higher decks above the waterline, meant that much weight must be added below by way of compensation; so a deep layer of ballast covered the whole bottom of the ship.

On the ballast were kept certain bulky and dangerous stores; there were the water-casks and the beer-barrels; the Bread and Fish rooms, and that carefully guarded compartment, the Spirit-room. The only room aft of this was usually the After-Magazine, where filled cartidges were stored.

The main Magazine, where the principle supply of barrelled powder was kept, was in the corresponding position in the bows of the ship.

In a place so highly inflammable as a wooden "Line" ship, fire and explosion were rightly regarded as the greatest dangers, and special copper doors, watched constantly by armed Marines, guarded the approach to them from the deck above; they were lined with felt, and no lantern of any kind was allowed near them, light being provided from specially sealed-off rooms alongside.

The Orlop Deck

This was the lowest of the proper decks. Historically speaking it was probably the original deck of the old Round Ship, depressed again and again as the various gun-decks were inserted above it until it was right on-or, in a fully laden ship, below-the water level.

There were, no ports in its sides; no light of day, ever reached it. It is some measure, of the difference between ideas of those days and these. It was here in the stale gloomy atmosphere, that the "young Gentlemen"-the "Midshipmen"-were to mess and to sleep.

The After Cockpit was their home, and they shared it with the Master's Mates, whose descendants are Sub-Lieutenants, and those-then-small fry, the Surgeon's Mates. This was not the only use to which the After Cockpit was put.

In times of action it was used as an operating room; the Midshipmen's chests and mess-tables were used for the amputation of limbs. Amidships came the tiers where the cables were stowed the chests, bags and other gear of seamen and marines was also stowed. In the bows was the Fore Cockpit, which were the quarters and store-rooms of the Boatswain and the Carpenter.

The Lower Deck

Next above the Orlap Deck came the first of the true gun-decks. Throughout its whole length, on both larboard and starboard sides, were ranged the heaviest guns in the ship, the 32-pounders, each with its own square port.

When the deck was cleared for action-and this is true of all gun-decks; one could pass fore and aft, unimpeded, from end to end. But space was valuable, and at times a number of movable bulkheads crossed the deck from side to side, deviding it up into compartments of various sizes, to form mess decks.

In the stern was the Gun-room, the home not only of the Gunner but also of the youngest of the "young gentlemen," then called volunteers; and sometimes, the more junior Midshipmen. Beyond the forward bulkhead of this compartment stretched the main lower deck, where the great bulk of the seamen slept and fed. This is the reason, why to this day the words "Lower Deck" remain a synonym for the rank and file of the Ship's Company.

For meals they divided themselves up into "messes," each numbering from four to eight and making itself as comfortable as possible between the guns. Each was provided with a movable table which could be hooked up to the beams above when not in use. Sometimes the messes were screened off with canvas, to allow a measure of privacy.

All slept in hammocks slung from the same beams; the over-crowding standard allowance of space per hammock was fourteen inches. This sounds impossible, since the smallest dimension of a normal man averages at least that.

But in practice things were not quite so bad, for the men of the two watches into which the Ship's Company was divided usually slept in alternative hammocks, so the all were seldom, occupied at the same time. In this way a man might hope to have twenty-eight inches in which to take his repose.

A place of work not a palace

The ship was not a palace of luxury. The hammocks were comfortable; but the atmosphere was quite nauseating. The place was quite often damp, and in cold weather it was incredibly cold, and in hot weather it was intolerably stuffy. Since the ports on this deck were not very far above the water level, it was not possible to open them, especially when the ship was under-way at sea.

As one approached the bows, a barrier, a few feet high, blocked the way. The object of this wall was two-fold. First, right in the bows on this deck were the two hawser-holes, through which passed the cables, which then ran along the deck and through a hole in it, down to the cable tiers below.

Though the hawser-holes were plugged as carefully as might be; when not being used for the passage of the cables, this never prevented a great deal of seawater from entering. Had it been allowed free access to the main part of the Lower Deck it would have rendered life too miserable even for such hardened beings as the eighteenth-century seamen.

So the wall was built to stop it; which to some extent, it did, though it did not prevent the sides of the Lower Deck from glistening and dripping with moisture, caused by both dampness and condensation. The second use to which this wall was put was the one which may have helped to give this compartment its name-the Manger.

Here were housed and stabled such live-stock as it was customary to take to sea at the beginning of a cruise, with the object of obtaining fresh meat for as long as possible.

The animals were killed off gradually as required, but-sad general conditions under which both men and cattle lived. One of the commonest complaints in ship's logs and officers' journals is that most of the pigs or sheep or cattle have been drowned in the manger during the recent blow!

The Middle Deck

Going up again, we now reach the Middle Deck. Here were the 24-pounders, the middle sized guns. And here, again beginning aft, we come to the Ward-room, with two galleries opening on to the ship's sides, called "quarter-galleries"; and occasionally there was a stern gallery as well.

By the end of the eighteenth century this apartment had become, as it still is, the living-room of the Lieutenants; and their cabins and store rooms, which were little more than screened-off corners of it, led from it or were immediately forward of it.

It is curious but true that no one has yet discovered, when the Lieutenants' connection with the Ward-room began. It is assumed that it was a gradual process. Nor does it appear that the Ward-room itself is a particularly old place, or a particularly old name.

The Ward-room was the abode of the Lieutenants, but the Chaplain lived there too. Gradually a number of other officers, like the Master and the Surgeon and the Purser, began to inhabit it. On the other hand, we know that for a long time some ship's, and perhaps most of the smaller ones, had no Ward-room at all, in which case the Lieutenants lived in the Gun-room.

Forward of the Lieutenants' quarters stretched the guns, on each side, less cluttered with other gear and removable compartments in almost any place in the ship. But here sometimes, especially in bad weather, were to be found the workshops of the carpenters, armourers, blacksmiths and the sailmakers.

At the forward end of this deck was situated the ship's galley, or kitchen, brick-floored often as a safeguard against fire, and containing a chimney which passed clean through the deck above to discharge its smoke into the open air on the forecastle.

The Main Deck

Up one more level and we begin to see daylight overhead. we are now on the Main Deck, the home of the 18-pounders. Once more beginning our tour from the stern, we find ourselves in the Admiral's state-room. The ship is, a three-decker so it is more than likely to be the flagship.

The height here from one deck to the next is a good deal greater than that in those previously visited, so that the cabin will be roomier than the Ward-room beneath it. Our Admiral also enjoys the amenities of both stern-and quarter-galleries.

As we go forward between the line of guns, just before we come to the main-mast, is the chief "front-door" of the ship-the Entry Port.

A few more steps, we find the ceiling overhead, which is the deck of the next level, comes to an end, and glimpses of open sky appear; but only glimpses, because a clear view is barred by an array of spare masts, spars and booms, lying fore and aft; and on these are lashed the ship's boats.

We are standing in the waist of the ship. Here the workshops which we have described when visiting the Middle Deck would sometimes be erected in finew weather, so that the workers might take advantage of the fresh air.

The bows of this deck house the Sick-bay, with the galley chimney running through it from top to bottom. Persons who being ill might need the comfort of good air and the additional warmth of the chimney. It had the best atmosphere in the whole ship, but also as near to being "centrally heated" as any room ever was in those days.

We have now passed through all of the true gun-decks, and for the first time reach the frsh air. But the deck-level before us is not continuous from end to end, because the central portion of the decking is undecked, for the masts and spars etc.

If we keep well to either side of the ship we can skirt the waist and pass from end to end of it by means of fairly wide gangways. It would, in fact, be a complete deck upon which we are now standing were there planking at the waist, instead of the spare masts and boats.

The Quarterdeck

Aft is the Quarterdeck. Here may linger only those "appointed by Commission," and, by special concession, those who hope in due course to be so appointed-the Midshipmen; but all of these must hurry over to the port side and leave the starboard side untenanted if they see the Captain approaching.

By climbing up the steps we reach the highest deck-level in the ship-the Poop-deck, it covers about a quarter of the ship's length, and offers a very good view all round.

Arising right aft and amidships, we see the ensign-staff, with the ensign flying-either red or white or blue-according in earlier times to the squadron to which our ship belongs, but in the late eighteenth century, to the step or grade in the flag-list attained by our Admiral.

If we peer over the stern we shall see below us the ship's lantern or stern light. Around the sides with their muzzles peeping through square ports, are those very efficient man-killers the carronades. Before their introduction in 1779 we should have found guns here, but they would have been the less efficient 9-pounders

The Ship's Wheel would have been a double one with a compass binnacle just in front of it. Here we are under the poop deck which protrudes forward to give some protection to the quatermaster and his staff at the wheel.

Fo'c'sle

The Froecastle, the seamen's "Fo'c'sle." Sometimes its level will be two steps above the Quarterdeck, but it could be the same. We come to the bowsprit and then down to the beak-head. The latter is a curious spur-shaped projection curved upwards into a point. It is perhaps a survival of the ram-a weapon, never seriously used in sailing-ship warfare, which now supports a figure-head.

Never in no two decades of their long history were "Line" ships identical even in structure, the same is probably true of any one year, for the idea of mass production was alien to that age. It was not, until 1882 that we began to build true "classes" of ships.

The continuation of this Naval History will be called: "Order of Ships"

Typical Line Ship Order of Ships

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