Today we are used to the White Ensign being flown by all ships of the Royal Navy. However in Nelson's Day a different system was in use.

The Navy was divided into three squadrons Red, White and Blue in order of seniority. Admirals were appointed to these squadrons and therefore their rank and squadron split the seniority into 9 bands with ‘Admiral of the Fleet' forming a tenth senior to all others.

In fiction books a seaman is often tasked with using the lead to check the depth of water.

To do so he is stationed in the chains and then swings the lead backwards and forwards to create momentum. During a forward swing he lets go so that the lead flies ahead of the ship giving it time to sink to the bottom. He then starts to haul in the line until the ship sails over it with the lead still on the sea bottom. As the line becomes vertical he looks down and reads off the depth just above the water.

The line is 25 fathoms long, 20 fathoms of which is marked by different shapes, numbers and colours of material tied at intervals along the line which he must memorise. The materials used were mainly leather, calico and serge. The lead itself was usually around 7lb.

In historic naval fiction books the author will often refer to ships as 'third rate', 'ship of the line' or '74'. This page seeks to clarify how the ships of the Napoleonic era were classified.

The rating system applied to ships of the Royal Navy between the 1670's and the early 19th century but in fiction will often be used to refer to ships of all nations. Whilst ships had been grouped into classes previously, Samuel Pepys revised and formalised the system in 1677. There were 6 rates, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th, together with unrated vessels.

Theoretically it was based on the number of cannons aboard, however smaller guns such as swivels were excluded and, more importantly, carronades (sometimes referred to as 'smashers') were not counted. However there were exceptions to this, particularly for some experimental ships which were armed entirely with carronades, and after 1817 they were included.

On Royal Navy ships of the sailing era the ships bell was used to tell everyone on board what the time was. Usually a half hour sand glass was used and as the Midshipman of the Watch turned it over the bell was rung a number of times to let the crew know how long they had been on watch and when the relief was due to take over. To allow for any discrepancies in turning the glass the naval day started at noon when the noon sight (the Captain and senior officers establishing when the Sun reached it’s daily zenith) could be used to start the daily cycle.

Depending on the number of crew available and the number of trained watch keeping officers, the crew could be divided into two or three watches. Usually it was two, the starboard and larboard watches. The three watch system was more popular with crews as they got a full eight hours off but not as widely used.

In large ships of war the capstan was found on the gundeck in the middle of the ship. In some cases it would connect with one on the deck below so that the crew could add their weight on more than one deck simultaneously.

When ready to weigh anchor small drawers, which could contain things like bandages when the ship went into action, were removed and capstan bars, about 10 feet long were fitted. An endless loop of rope passed round the capstan and one or more pulleys. This rope the ‘messenger’ was seized to the anchor cable with short lengths of rope called ‘nippers’. This method was used as the anchor cable was too thick to pass round the capstan and tying things to the wet rope would have caused difficulty when it came time to untie the wet knots.