The fleet of bergs had not yet come out of port, though it was in motion to the southward, like three-deckers dropping down to outer anchorages, in roadsteads and bays.

When it was expected that the British fleet would comprise forty sail-of-the-line and the enemy's fleet forty-six, each British main division was to be made up of sixteen ships; and eight two-deckers added to either division would increase the strength of the latter to twenty-four ships.

In January 1804 we had on the Cape of Good Hope and the East Indies stations, both together, six sail of the line, three smaller two-deckers, six frigates, and six sloops, or twenty-one ships of war in all.

The 64-gun ships and smaller two-deckers had greatly diminished in number, and repetitions of them grew more and more rare.

It was the same with the three-deckers, which, as the late Admiral Colomb pointed out, continued to be built, though in reduced numbers, not so much for their tactical efficiency as for the convenient manner in which they met the demands for the accommodation required in flag-ships.

The tactical condition which the naval architects of the Trafalgar period had to meet was the employment of an increased number of two-deckers of the medium classes.

It will also show that there was no development of, but a relative decline in, the three-deckers and the 64's, the small additions, where there were any, being generally due to captures from the enemy.

The two-deckers not 'fit to lie in a line' were at the end of the Trafalgar year about half what they were when the first period of the 'Great War' began.

| 1801 | 1803 | 1806 | |-| | 3-deckers | 31 | 32 | 29 | 29 | | 2-deckers of 74 | 76 | 111 | 105

| 1801 | 1803 | 1806 | |-| | 3-deckers | 31 | 32 | 29 | 29 | | 2-deckers of 74 | 76 | 111 | 105

| | | 64 and 60 gun ships | 46 | 47 | 38 | 38 | | 2-deckers not 'fit | 43 | 31 | 21 | 22 | | to lie in a line' |

The liking for three-deckers, professed by some officers of Nelson's time, seems to have been due to a belief, not in the merit of their size as such, but in the value of the increased number of medium guns carried on a 'middle' deck.

There is, I believe, nothing to show that the two-deckers Gibraltar (2185 tons) and Coesar (2003) were considered more formidable than the three-deckers Balfleur (1947), Glory (1944), or Queen (1876).

There is, I believe, nothing to show that the two-deckers Gibraltar (2185 tons) and Coesar (2003) were considered more formidable than the three-deckers Balfleur (1947), Glory (1944), or Queen (1876).

These were the two-deckers of 56, 54, 50, 44, and even 40 guns.

The two-deckers just mentioned were looked upon by the date of Trafalgar as forming an unnecessary class of fighting ships.

Two of the ships ahead struck me as frigates, having their broadsides exposed to us: we had raised one line of ports, but it was possible they might turn out to be two-deckers; ships of war they were, beyond all question, and I fancied them English from the squareness of their upper sails.

where are they all, Your grand three-deckers, deep-chested and tall, That should crush the waves under canvas piles, And anchor at last by the Fortunate Isles?

There ain't no harbour dues to pay when once they're over the bar, Moored bow and stern in a quiet berth where the lost three-deckers are. An' there's Nelson 'oldin' is' one 'and out an' welcomin' them that's made The roads o' Glory an' the Port of Death in the North Atlantic trade.

" It was in the days when France's power was already broken upon the seas, and when more of her three-deckers lay rotting in the Medway than were to be found in Brest harbour.

(In Cosmopolitan magazine, June 1923) © 10May23, B576576. R62240, 17May50, P. G. Wodehouse (A) DECKERS ON THE COAST, by William McFee. (In the Atlantic monthly, July 1923)

SEE Deckers on the coast.

(In Cosmopolitan magazine, June 1923) © 10May23, B576576. R62240, 17May50, P. G. Wodehouse (A) DECKERS ON THE COAST, by William McFee. (In the Atlantic monthly, July 1923)

The head of the bay, indeed, was alive with craft moving in different directions, while a large fleet of English, Russians, Neapolitans, and Turks, composed of two-deckers, frigates, and sloops, lay at their anchors in front of the town.

Well, you see with what success; for neither Nelson nor his two-deckers can keep Raoul Yvard from the woman he loves, let him be as victorious and skilful as he may!"