American Heavy Frigates 1794-1826 [Paperback]

"American Heavy Frigates, 1794-1826" by Mark Lardas is one of the innumerable Osprey paperbacks, packed with illustrations and aimed at presenting a study of one particular slice of military history. In this case, it is part of the New Vanguard series about "The design, development, operation and history in the machinery of warfare through the ages," and the weapons system presented in Lardas's book is epitomized by arguably the most famous American warship of all time: the USS Constitution, Old Ironsides. But "American Heavy Frigates" goes well beyond that single vessel or even the War of 1812. Instead, we are treated to concise although comprehensive survey history of the design and development of the ship type, including a discussion of foreign influences, from Joshua Humphreys' proposal in 1793 that "as our navy for a considerable time will be inferior in numbers we must consider what size ships will be an overmatch for those of an enemy ..." until the last American sailing heavy frigates (USS Santee and Sabine) were launched in 1855. Too often we forget that this ship type in the US Navy was not limited to the Constitution and her two sister ships (President and United States) but included over a dozen other vessels of similar design, the backbone of the American navy through the Mexican War and beyond. Lardas discusses the origin, operational history, and eventual fate of each heavy frigate. Most of the illustrations are black-and-white reproductions of contemporary paintings or engravings of the ships, although the color section includes an excellent detailed three-dimensional cutaway drawing of Old Ironsides. "American Heavy Frigates" is a slender volume (only 48 pages) but a worthy addition to any library of books about the Age of Fighting Sail.

The role of the three "heavy" 44 gun frigates - USS Constitution, United States and President - is crucial in early American naval history. Indeed, lacking a large battle fleet, the heavy frigate was the backbone of the US Navy until the onset of the Civil War. Mark Lardas, with degrees in naval architecture and marine engineering, is well qualified to outline the design, development and history of America's heavy frigates. Overall, the volume is adequate and gives a good perspective on the role of these sailing warships.

Lardas has sections on the design and development, operational history and the ships themselves. The American frigates in this period are classified as the three original Humphreys' frigates (built 1794-1800), the three war expansion frigates (built 1813-1815), the nine "gradual increase" frigates (built 1819-1861) and the three final frigates (1813-1842). The color plates depict the sail plan of the USS United States; the USS Constitution evading the British fleet; the gun deck on a Humphreys' frigate; a cutaway diagram of the USS Constitution; the mast arrangement of the USS Brandywine; the capture of the USS President; and flags and weapons.

American Heavy Frigates 1794-1826 will give readers a basic overview of most of the ships in this period, although some readers will wonder why this book excludes 36-gun frigates like the USS Constellation. Why not just cover all US frigates in the period 1798-1815, rather than covering a number of warships, such as the USS Hudson, that were historical non-entities. I was also disappointed that the author failed to provide any comparative data on the naval guns mounted on these frigates, since superior firepower was one of their main advantages he notes. Nor is there any information on tactics, training, cost of construction, materials used, maintenance (how often did they need their copper plates replaced?), etc. Thus, the author provides a bare-bones summary of the ships, without much else to add value. Quite frankly, much of the material here is merely summarized from other secondary sources, with little sign of fresh research.