First-rate
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In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, first-rate was the designation for the largest ships of the line. Originating in the Jacobean era with the designation of Sh
Painting of a model of the first-rate HMS Royal George
1587 engraving of the Ship Royal Ark Royal
1778 illustration of the first-rate HMS Victory
Battleship 1
Ship of the line
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A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the lin
Saint-Esprit, a ship of the line of the French Navy; depicted in the Battle of Saint Kitts, 1782
The carrack Henri Grace à Dieu, from the Anthony Roll
Sovereign of the Seas, a contemporaneous engraving by J. Payne
The Cannon Shot, 1707, by Willem van de Velde the Younger depicts an early 18th-century Dutch man-of-war.