Councilor to sink battleship complaints

Boston Herald ^ | November 9, 2009 | Richard Weir

[Little Ray]

And it still a commissioned ship in the US Navy.

[mad_as_he$$]

Yikes - quit a sentence there dead!!!

[ArrogantBustard]

in modern parlance “SOL” doesn’t mean “Ship of the Line” anymore.

In those days, the US Navy was a third-rate power (at best), and could afford neither to build nor to operate Ships of the Line. She was a Frigate, albeit a bit on the heavy side, but much less powerful than the big ships of (eg) the Royal Navy.

USS Constitution:

HMS Victory:

HMS Victory would have blown USS Constitution out of the water, had her captain been foolish enough to stick around and try to slug it out. Constitution could, of course, more than hold her own against similarly sized British ships.

[ArrogantBustard]

Just added another vote for “Fire on the Condos”.

[Little Ray]

Actually, “battleship” come from “ship of the line of battle.” So, technically, any ship of the line was a battleship.

But frigate definitely had no place in the line of battle. They were scouts, raiders, and blockaders. But a 64 gun “third rate” ship of the line would make short work of one.

[Sherman Logan]

But a 64 gun “third rate” ship of the line would make short work of one.

If it could catch a frigate, which isn't particularly likely, unless cornered or the frigate commander was an idiot.

My point was that the word "battleship" wasn't used at the time, or indeed I believe until the late 19th century.

[SuperLuminal]

Tory scumbag alert!

[fieldmarshaldj]

"We're being attacked by hottentots !"