Re:realistic fleets

another thought on the question of realistic fleets- in the past, a
couple
of us here have considered the Napoleonic era as a source of
inspiration,
and produced a few conversion systems.	I was looking at a fleet list
for
the RN in 1804, and the thought struck me that the Napoleonic "standard
battleship", the 74-gun 3rd rate ship, could be equated to the FT
standard
battleship (Mass-48).  This gives a conversion factor (extra simple, and
ignoring huge differences in broadside weight!) of "Guns x 0.648648649"
= FT
Mass.  This turns out to work remarkably well;	a 100-gun 1st rate gets
a
Mass of 64;  most frigates become light or escort cruisers;  28-gun 6th
rates are mass-18, with assorted unrated sloops etc being escort sized. 
The
biggest ship of the time, the 130-gun Santissima Trinidad, is Mass-84. 
If
USS Constitution is considered a Mass-36 superheavy cruiser, she comes
out
at "55.5" guns, which is pretty close to the truth!

At this time, the RN had 94 74-gun ships, and 8-900 vessels altogether.

Rob Paul