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When the rating system was first established in the 1620s, the third rate was defined as those ships having at least 200 but not more than 300 men; previous to this, the type had been classified as "middling ships". By the 1660s, the means of classification had shifted from the number of men to the
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number of carriage-mounted guns, and third rates at that time mounted between 48 and 60 guns. By the turn of the century, the criterion boundaries had increased and third rate carried more than 60 guns, with second rates having between 90 and 98 guns, while first rates had 100 guns or more, and
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By the end of the 18th century, ships of the line were usually categorized directly by their number of guns, the numbers even being used as the name of the class, as in "a squadron of three 74s", but officially the rating system continued until the end of the
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Note that the use of terms like "third-rate" in literature can lead to confusion: The French Navy had a different system of five rates or
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This article is about Royal Navy ships of the line. For the adjective meaning that something is of inferior quality, see
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between 48 and 60 guns. By the latter half of the 18th century, they carried between 500 and 720 men.
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which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two
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This designation became especially common because it included the
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The
Command of the Ocean, a Naval History of Britain 1649–1815
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The
Command of the Ocean, a Naval History of Britain 1649-1815
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292:(2nd edition), Barnsley (2008).
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