British Navy Age-of-Sail

[beatrice_otter]

I have a British Naval officer commanding a sloop during the Napoleonic wars. Given skill, daring, and luck, what is the largest French-or-Spanish merchant ship he could reasonably take? What would be the most valuable cargo for it to be carrying? (Obviously, his ship is much too small to be going after, like, Spanish treasure galleons carrying silver.)

Comments

[voidampersand]

The inspiration for Hornblower was Thomas Cochrane. With the sloop Speedy, Cochrane took a Spanish frigate that was four times the size and had a crew six times larger, as well as being much more heavily armed. But that was not reasonable. That was Cochrane.

[beatrice_otter]

Yeah, that would be a bit much.

[rmc28]

Cochrane is also the inspiration for Jack Aubrey in the Patrick O'Brien books.

[beatrice_otter]

Yeah, he's a bit too much for what I need.