"Frigate Armament" Topic

I have been trying to find good reference sources that will give me some more details about frigate or 5th rate vessels during the Napoleonic period. Often they are just described as a 34 gun frigate but their actual number and type of each cannon is not mentioned. There is quite alot of information for the British and French frigates with these being armed with up to 18 pdr cannons. However I cannot see much information on Spanish frigates. The few examples I have seen such as the Mahonesa class with 26 x 12pdr and 8 x 6pdrs coming from the Sails of Glory game.
This would seem to be a very weak armament compared with a British Leda class 38 gun frigate (28 x 18pdr, 10 x 9pdr and 8 x 32pdr carronades).

Any help is appreciated.

A case of early war, late war. Carronades were added to most ships latter in the age of sail.

I always thought 28 guns was the min. for a frigate. Perhaps the Mahonesa class is a sloop or Brig. ?

The Mahonesa's were a class of 34-gun 12 pounder frigates.

Not very large and described as rather lightly built like some French frigates.

Spain tended (at that time) to build their frigates in two distinct types – small frigates with around 34 guns (usually about 26x 12 pounders and then smaller pieces) and a larger type of around 38-40 guns mostly 18 pounders.

The following Spanish frigates were captured and documents by the RN:

34 gun Spanish 12-lbr frigates (26 x 12) + (8 x 6):
La Mahonesa – 974 tons bm (British measure)
Ninfa – 890 tons bm
Santa Dorotea – 957 tons bm
Santa Teresa – 953 tons bm
Nuestra Senora del Carmen – 907 tons bm
Santa Florentina – 901 tons bm
Santa Clara – 956 tons bm
Santa Gertruda – 765 tons bm (a very old ship)
Pomona – 872 tons bm

40 gun Spanish 18-lbr frigates (28 x 18) + (12 x 8):
Sabina – 1000 tons bm

Other sources I have suggest that the armaments of both classes varied from ship to ship, time to time, or both. 34s are often referred to as "34-36"; 40s are referred to as 38-44 or 40-44 or 38-42. My semi-educated guess is that any difference in number of guns carried above the nominal armament would be accounted for by additional guns mounted upon forecastle or quarterdeck; they might be additional 6 or 8 pound long guns, or possibly carronades or obus (short carronade-like guns) – I cannot say for certain with the references currently at hand.

FWIW.

B

For any age of sail research, I highly recommend this website.

threedecks.org/index.php

Thanks for the replies. It makes perfect sense that they would make comparable increases in frigate armament to other contemporary navies. It seems that carronades or howitzers were often not included in the stated number of "guns" a ship carried.

Cheers.

Same usually goes for chasers – both bow and stern chasers were usually not counted (and sometimes not mounted).

Sometimes the the bow gun ports on the gun deck are not filled, British practice, but the French and sometimes Spanish will fill those ports. So a 38 can be a 40 depending. Also I have seen the two stern ports on the gun deck filled as well. The English do not do this as it is expensive, not very useful, and kill sea keeping and ship handling.