Naval experts of r/AskHistorians, I sketched a plan of a 4-masted, 182-gun first rate ship of the line, can you tell me if a ship like this would be possible to sail?

by NikKerk

image

(I couldn't draw the rigging because that would require an immense amount of detail, and would block most of the sails I drew)

I drew two mizzen masts, and I thought that adding two steering wheels would make a ship like this easier to maneuver. Would that be realistic?

The ship's masts are also much taller (though I ran out of room on my paper) and have more sails than shown. For the individual sails that look like this (pardon me, I don't know the proper term for these types of sails from the 18th century), there are about 5 stacked on top of each other on each mast (fore, main and mizzens) though if I was able to draw this ship at a much larger, full-sized scale, there would be 6 stacked on top of each other on each mast. Would that be too many sails on each mast?

Other questions I have:

  • how fast could a ship like this sail?

  • how many people would be required to fully operate this ship? (cannons, sails, commanding officers, etc.)

vonadler

The main problem with wooden ships is that they twist and heave, hog and sag in the seas. This means that the size of the ship is limited - too large a wooden ship, and the keel will break under the weight in heavy weather.

This means that the practical size of a wooden ship is no more than about 100-120 meters. The US schooner Wyoming was 140 meters long, and despite using iron reinforcements of its hull, the planks separated as the ship heaved and twisted at sea, resulting in constant leaks, meaning the ship had to have pumps active throughout the dayt and night to keep its holds relatively dry.

The largest sailing ship of the line built was the French Valmy, of 120 guns and some 6000 tons displacement - and she rolled badly and was considered a bad sailer. The most guns were carried by the Spanish Santissima Trinidad with 136 guns and she was also noted as a bad sailer - at Trafalgar 1805, she was unable to move at all and was unresponsive to the helm in the light winds of the day, being shot to pieces by the more manouvrable British ships.

I don't know how long or how tall your ship is, or how many tons it displaces - not do I know how heavy the guns on the upper decks are or if it is a traditional ship of the line with inward-leaning sides and lighter guns on the upper decks (which did much to improve stability) or like the Valmy have straight sides. However, the enormous size that would be required for your ship would most likely make it a very bad sailer, with severe problems in heavy weather, perhaps even breaking apart like the Wyoming did, and in light winds she would probably be immobile like the Santissima Trinidad was, meaning any enemy ship can position itseld behind it and rake it until it has to surrender.