How an 18th Century Ship of the Line Works

[1srelluc]

There's a big reason why most navies of the period fielded the nominally-74-gun "Third Rate" as their main line-of-battle ship. 100+ gun first rates like Victory were just way too expensive and took too much manning.

 

[odanny]

Historic Ships in Baltimore | USS Constellation

historicships.org

I got to walk below deck on this and you have to duck the entire time, and I'm 5'11", so I'm guessing the average height was around 5'4" to 5'6" or so back then. And this was 1854 when launched. The captain quarters on this ship is quite nice, even has a bathtub that drains right over the side of the ship, and a nice mess quarters.