==================+==========+=========+========+========== Description of | Great | | | Vessels. | Britain. | France. | Spain. | Holland. ------------------+----------+---------+--------+---------- Ships of the Line | 105 | 89 | 53 | 32 Fifty-gun Ships | 13 | 7 | 3 | 0 Large Frigates | 63 | 49 | 12 | { 28 Small Frigates | 69 | 54 | 36 | { Sloops | 217 | 86 | 31 | 13 Cutters | 43 | 22 | 0 | 0 Armed Ships | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 Bombs | 7 | 5 | 14 | 0 Fire-Ships | 9 | 7 | 11 | 6 Yachts | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 +----------+---------+--------+---------- TOTAL | 555 | 319 | 160 | 79 ==================+==========+=========+========+========== In this list it is interesting to note the British inability to maintain even a Two-Power Standard in ships of the line, whereas in sloops and such like, an enormous preponderance prevailed. For the suppression of privateering on the coastal trade, these small craft proved very useful. Also worthy of note is the decline of the fire-ship as a naval arm.[40] The figures as a whole suggest with much clarity that had the Allies been able to act together, Great Britain would never have emerged from the war so well as she did. The ten years’ peace that followed was little more than a breathing space. War was constantly apprehended, and known improvement in French ships were such that they had to be carefully watched. The frigates built in England were made longer than before, with a view to keeping pace with French sailing qualities. Considerable interest was taken in how far the country was self-supporting in the matter of timber for shipbuilding, a certain reliance on foreign supplies having previously existed. At, and about 1775, the cost of shipbuilding for the East India Company had exactly doubled in a few years. The home supply trouble arose, partly from the increased size of shipping, partly from the tendency of owners to fell trees as early as possible. Out of which special oak plantations were set up in the New Forest and elsewhere, though oak happened to cease to be of value for shipbuilding long before they had grown large enough for the larger timbers. The question of repairs also came in for consideration, an average of twenty-five years’ repair totalling the cost of a new ship. At and about this time also, the building of ships by contract in peace time was first recommended on the grounds that thus the private yards would be better available in case of war.