So there are a lot of hypotheticals here -- are you talking about a small 9-pounder frigate such as HMS Surprise (either the real or the fictional one) or a heavy frigate such as the 44-gun ships of the Roebuck class, mounting 12- and 18-pound guns? Are the frigates British, French or Spanish? And so on.

I'm asking because there were some occasions during the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic wars when frigates took on and defeated larger ships.

The most famous is likely the contest between the French 74 Droits de l'Homme and the British frigates Indefatigable and Amazon on 13 January 1797. Droits de l'Homme was part of an abortive effort by the French to invade Ireland, at Bantry Bay, which was broken up by a storm. When returning to France, Droits de l'Homme was sighted by the two British frigates in thick weather and heavy fog, and attempted to run from them.

The British captain Sir Edward Pellew (later an admiral, and eventually created the 1st Viscount Exmouth) was in command of Indefatigable, and assessed the situation as such:

• He was senior to Amazon's captain, Robert Carthew Reynolds, and could order him to fight, but they were in intermittent visual contact and Amazon was already sailing to cut off the enemy in any case;

• Amazon was too far away (about 8 nautical miles) to offer support before Indefatigable could engage Droits de l'Homme;

• Upon seeing the two British ships, Droits de l'Homme had immediately attempted to flee, which argued for a lack of fighting spirit on the part of her captain;

• The heavy sea that was running would likely limit Droits de l'Homme's ability to open its lower gunports without flooding the ship (the lower the deck, the heavier gun a ship could carry);

and decided to engage the enemy ship. He did that by bringing his more nimble frigate under the stern of Droits de l'Homme to rake it (that is, fire shots down the length of its gun decks), then attempted to maneuver around the ship to rake it from the bow. The French ship fired on Pellew but its shots went wild, and the two ships engaged in a duel that consisted of Pellew using his more nimble ship to try to stay out of an angle where he could be fired upon.

The action started about 17:30 and continued until Amazon showed up about 18:45, and the two ships attempted to catch the French ship in a crossfire. About 19:30, two hours after the action had started, the British ships pulled back to make repairs, returning about an hour later and inflicting heavy damage on Droits de l'Homme, eventually knocking away her mizzenmast.

At this point, the sailors on board all three ships were exhausted, and Droits de l'Homme had suffered heavy casualties. The group continued a sporadic fire throughout the night, until spotting the shore of Audierne Bay under their lee at about 4:20 the next morning. Indefatigable and Amazon both broke off the action, with Indefatigable escaping.

Amazon turned south and grounded on a sandbank. Her survivors, other than six men who stole a boat and attempted to escape, made it ashore and were made prisoners.

Droits de l'Homme attempted to anchor but drifted ashore about 7:30 on the 14th, hitting a sandbank and turning on its side. Attempts of survivors to leave Droits de l'Homme were hampered by bad weather, and many of the soldiers and sailors ashore died either drowning attempting to reach shore or of wounds/exposure from being on the ship.

Total French casualties are hard to estimate, but something between 600-900 killed and another 100 or so wounded seems reasonable. The British lost 3 killed in the action, 34 wounded, and 6 more men who drowned after Amazon grounded.

Next time ... ask me about the time a British East India squadron and one brig defeated a French squadron with a 74, two large frigates, a small frigate and a brig.