Ship of the line
A Ship of the line was a kind of warship. Most ships of the line were built between the 17th and 19th century. At that time, battles were fought by many such ships, which sailed in a line. At first, such ships were sailing boats, but from about the 1840s, steam-driven ships of the line were built. The steam-powered ships of the line were still made of wood. From about 1859, the Ironclad warship replaced them.
At that time, ships had cannons. Larger ships had room for more cannons, and were therefore more likely to hit the enemy. Today, ship designs are noticeably different, as cannons are no longer used.
Ship Of The Line Media
Saint-Esprit, a ship of the line of the French Navy
The carrack Henri Grace à Dieu, from the Anthony Roll
The Cannon Shot, 1707, by Willem van de Velde the Younger depicts an early 18th-century Dutch man-of-war.
Napoléon (1850), the first steam battleship
Turner's depiction of HMS Temeraire, hero of the Battle of Trafalgar, ignominiously towed by a little steamship
HMS Victory in 1884, the only surviving example of a ship of the line
HMS Victory at drydock in Portsmouth Harbour, 2007
A contemporary diagram illustrating a first- and a third-rate ship
Mahmudiye (1829)
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