Whilst the French were engaged on their Eugènie type the English had laid down a type of 3000-ton frigates (Emerald class) which reached a speed of 13 knots. On the appearance of the Wabash in European waters, the English at once designed a type to surpass her, and completely overshot the mark in the Mersey and Orlando, in which displacement was carried to 5600 tons; but in the attempt to realize a speed of 13 knots, they gave the vessels proportions that were unfit for wooden construction. With their profusion of experiments, however, we find between 1857 and 1860 a succession of types ranging from 2500 to 4600 tons, the majority averaging about 3800 tons. In these ships may be seen the constant search to find the one combination that shall possess all the excellences. All of these vessels were thorough cruisers, and in no case except in the Mersey type do we find the experiment resulting in worthlessness; still, an examination of the frigates will show the impossibility of giving a distinct classification to them. Beyond the Crimean war it has been already stated that the development of the line-of-battle ship had scarcely passed the experimental stage, and after 1857 the sudden increase in power of the frigate, combined with the introduction of the sea-going iron-clad, stopped almost entirely the development of this type, although their construction was carried on until 1860. In France a new fleet programme was laid down in 1857, in which the heavy American and English frigates were entirely ignored, and whilst new frigates of the Eugènie type were built almost without change, the increase in vessels of this class was confined almost exclusively to lengthening and converting the old frigates of 2500 tons into steamers of 3000. Development of wooden ships was found only in the corvette class. The reason for this independent departure was, in all probability, due to the original start made by France in the development of the iron-clad frigate in this same year, combined with a dissatisfaction on the part of the French with the speed realized in the Wabash and Orlando.