I'm writing a book about pirates that is placed in the early 1700's. I'm working on a scene where a Royal Navy warship is chasing a Dutch Flute and catch them, but I'm not sure if that's possible. I know that British Man O' Wars can sail up to 8 or 9 knots, but have no idea how fast a flute can sail. Are smaller and lighter ships typically faster or do the warships have an advantage because of more tack?
Hi there, you may be working off of a set of misconceptions that I'd be happy to help with.
First off, the Dutch ship is a fluyt, not a flute -- this is a minor point but one that would be important for accuracy. A fluyt is a specific type of three-masted ship carrying a square rig on the fore- and main-masts, with a lateen mizen. The flyut was based on the design of a galleon, but with higher masts and a wider hull, with a narrow main (in naval architecture they call that "tumblehome"). The fluyt wasn't built for speed per se but as a class they would likely be faster than the older galleons, but speed in a naval context is a tricky thing.
Second off, what type of British warship are you thinking of? A ship of the line might not be fast enough to catch up to a fluyt, but a frigate (a type that was being developed in the early 1700s) or a smaller ship might not have any trouble doing that.
Speed in an age of sail naval context depends on a few things:
Bigger ships are generally, not always, slower than smaller ships, but the rig and amount of available manpower can change that dramatically.
If the scenario is one where both ships are sailing before the wind (going downwind), once sails are set there's not a lot of trimming to do. But if the ships are being forced to beat upwind (tack), a bigger crew will be able to tack even a bigger ship more quickly while losing less ground.
The bigger a ship is, the taller its masts usually are, and the more overall sail it can spread. The thrust from royals, topgallants and higher sails, and staysails, is sometimes as much as the thrust from the large mainsails (courses) at the bottom of the mast.
A bigger ship also has an advantage in heavy weather, as its momentum will mean that it will not be becalmed as long in heavy swells. A bigger ship is also moved faster by currents (bigger things have more area for the current to push on and drift faster, counterintuitive though that seems).
Skill of the officers and crew is also crucial -- we know, for example, that even fast French ships captured by the British became faster in British service, because the innumerable details of rake of masts, tension of shrouds, stowage to bring the ship by the head or stern, all impact speed.
I would recommend you check out a couple of resources before you continue, just for the sake of historical accuracy. Rif Winfield has a series of books on British ships during the Age of Sail (and later) that are quite accessible to the novice reader; these would both be helpful:
The Dutch flute was not a ship build for speed, but for cargo carrying capacity and ease of handling - meaning a minimum of crew was needed to sail the ship. As opposed to other 16th and 17th century trading vessels, it was never designed to be able to double as a warship in times of war. Many of the Dutch flutes eliminated or minimised armament, although they did serve as auxiliary ships both on the Danish and the Swedish side (depending on which side the Dutch supported at the time) as armed vessels in the Baltic Sea.
However, the Dutch flute also had higher masts than most contemporary cargo ships (such as the galleon) and could be quite fast.
It would be rare for a British Ship of the Line to chase a merchant vessel - Ship of the Line were expensive to build and maintain, not even speaking of having in active service. The Royal Navy usually mothballed most of its Ship of the Line during peacetime, putting the officers on half pay and discharging the sailors.
British Ship of the Line would not be faster than other nations' Ship of the Line at the time, as the habit of copper sheeting the bottom of the ships did not see widespread usage in the Royal Navy until the 1750s.
Chasing pirates were done by lighter ships - for example, the vessel used by Maynard in the final battle of the infamous pirate Edward "Blackbeard" Teach was a sloop named Jane
Wow! I have also been working on a novel (for the past few months) about Pirates in the early 1700's with the British and possibly the Dutch being involved (as well as other nationalities.)
What is the setting of your book? (specifically asking because you're adding the Dutch in your story, well, a ship that's part of the Dutch)
Whenever I think of a fluyt, I always picture the 1600's in mind, rather than the early 1700's. Were fluyts still a ship class up until the early 1700's?