Ships continued to increase in size and power of armament. The _Ville de Paris_, of one hundred and ten guns and 2,332 tons, and her sister ship, the _Hibernia_, ordered in 1790, were the first of their class. Before the latter was finished she was lengthened and her tonnage raised to 2,508 tons. Another new class, introduced about that time, comprised three ships of 776 tons each, carrying thirty-two guns, the main deck armament consisting of 18-pounders; they did so well that several others were added. About 1783 a greater length in proportion to beam was adopted, which made the ships faster sailers and better sea-boats, and several vessels of the higher classes were altered, and many others had their bottoms specially thickened to withstand stranding. The 42-pounder guns of the largest ships were found difficult to handle and of less rapidity of fire than the 32-pounders, and were removed from the main deck battery of the _Royal Sovereign_ and other ships in favour of the 32-pounders. The _Commerce de Marseilles_, of 120 guns, was one of the French vessels which accompanied under compulsion the combined English and Spanish squadron from Toulon in 1793. She was considered to be the largest ship in the world. Her gun-deck was 208 feet 4 inches in length, and her keel for tonnage 172 feet 0⅛ inch. Her depth of hold was 25 feet 0½ inch, and her extreme breadth 54 feet 9½ inches, her tonnage being 2,747 tons. She was not a very valuable acquisition, however, for her timbers were in such a state that she was not worth repairing; she was accordingly taken to pieces in 1802. Probably, like many more vessels built in those strenuous times, she was constructed of unseasoned timber, or had a quantity of immature or soft wood put into her in order that she might be got ready for war as quickly as possible, for warships were wanted in such a hurry that it was more necessary that they should be available for use at the earliest opportunity than that they should be expected to last for very long. Both the British and French fleets had a number of these “green” ships.