Hermione - Reconstructed French Sailing Ship on C-SPAN3

American History TV chronicled the 2015 arrival of a sailing ship designed after the French vessel that brought the Marquis de Lafayette back to the United States in 1780 on a mission to help in the revolution. We see the ship's arrival at Yorktown, Virginia, interviews with crew members and the president of the American Friends of L’Hermione, and portions of speeches by French and American government representatives.
SUNDAY at 6pm & 10pm ET on American Artifacts
www.c-span.org...

[@221b-l3t]

The view of the ship anchored in a bay shows how commanding a frigate really is. It would have been a terrifying sight if one of these showed up.

[@ms-lazuli7435]

And yet the frigates (from 1780) are so much smaller than a 74-gun ship!

[@221b-l3t]

@@ms-lazuli7435 Not really, they're the same length, a 74 has one more main gun deck and it is armoured more heavily being a ship of the line. So while a frigate might be 800-1500 t and maybe 50 m long a 74 is similar length around 2000 t - 2500 t. It's substantially bigger than a light frigate but not a heavy one. Some frigates where even formerly 74s. HMS Indefatigable was a razee frigate meaning they took the upper gun deck and parts of the aft superstructure off to make a heavily armoured frigate, with 24 pounders on the main gun deck rather than 9-18 pounders as is more typical on a frigate. And a ship of the line was very valuable they didn't usually travel alone and do missions alone, generally in a squadron of a couple of ships of the line, a few frigates and corvettes and maybe a sloop to run messages and scout upwind, where the corvettes can't. So frigates generally tended to be the ones to off on some mission, corvettes too but those wouldn't really be able to destroy a city unlike a heavy frigate. The biggest artillery on land where generally 6 pounders, which is the armament of a light corvette. Even a fort wouldn't substantially outgun a frigate and it can't move.

[@gaetanm8466]

Vive la France