The truth of this statement will be evident from a brief mention of
the duties frigates actually used to perform. While attending the
fleet, not merely a part of it, the frigates were thrown out far
in advance and on each side, as cavalry on land scours the country
towards or through which the army advances. The distance to which
they would be thus detached would sometimes amount to one hundred or
two hundred miles, and the absence to days, rejoining being assured
by the assignment of a rendezvous, or by an adequate knowledge of the
admiral’s intended movements. It will be recognized that when thus
alone frigates might meet equal or superior forces, to resist or to
escape from which both strength and speed were needed. An extreme and
particular case of such service was the watching of an enemy’s port
by one or more frigates, when they had to keep close to the entrance,
although a fleet might be within. Again, frigates were placed in
certain central positions, rendezvous known only to the superior
officers, where they cruised steadily, having information as to the
whereabouts of the fleet, or instructions for expected vessels. They
were there centres of intelligence, round which the movements of the
whole body revolved.
When the fleet was actually in touch with a hostile fleet, in pursuit,
or when expecting battle, the frigates were placed between their own
force and the enemy; nearer, however, to the latter, as the essential
point was to keep knowledge of his whereabouts and probable intentions.
Such a position was at times extremely exposed. The frigates had to
avoid equally capture and being driven and shaken off; they must keep
close, yet not be caught. When engagement ensued they passed through to
the off side of their own fleet, where they were dispersed at intervals
abreast the main line, like the file closers of a military line ashore.
Here they fulfilled one special purpose, besides others. As the fleet
fought with broadsides only, its ships were ranged one ahead of the
other. Consequently signals made on the masts of the admiral could not
be seen always by those ahead or astern of him; but the frigates in the
other line made the same signals, “repeated,” as it was said, where
they could be read more certainly. But frigates did also more hazardous
work. They went to crippled ships of the line and towed them into other
positions, into or out of fire, and at times the admiral summoned a
frigate alongside to carry a message to some part of the battle. “I
noticed,” says Marryatt, in one of his novels, “the look of pride on
the faces of our officers when it appeared that the loss on board our
frigate was greater than that of some of the ships in the line.”
For such offices it is evident there were wanted a strength and a
weight which the corvette did not have. A corvette would make poor
work of towing a heavy ship, and could not carry as surely the
sail needed to maintain a position. At the same time it should be
observed that excess of size above the requirements stated should
be exceptional. In the opinion of the writer the forty-four-gun
frigate in her day possessed a fighting force and a weight of body
in excess of that required by the ordinary functions of her nominal
class. For exceptional reasons, a few of the type were permissible
in a large navy. On the other hand, it may be inferred from the long
experience of the British navy, and the resultant practice, that ships
of twenty-eight, twenty-four, and twenty guns, though often styled
frigates, were not found satisfactory as such. In the distribution of
tonnage between size and numbers, a mean must be found; and it must be
added that a just mean is a very different thing from a compromise.
These considerations also apply to present-day problems.