| The colony inventions era stimulated enlargement and improvement of navy. The state controlling the shipping routes controlled the whole
New World. This period witnessed more naval battles than all the previous ones. In 1653 the British Admiralty divided ships into 6 classes: 1 - over 90
cannons, 2 - over 80 cannons, 3 - over 50 cannons, 4 - over 38 cannons, 5 - over 18 cannons, 6 - over 6 cannons. According to this the quantity of decks
and the ship's size was regulated. The first three classes were related to battleships, they had displacement of 900 - 1800 tons and a crew of about 750
people. The fourth and the fifth classes were attributed to frigates. The sixth class was represented by transport and messenger ships. Besides there
were lots of ships not included into any of the classes: bombardier ships, fire-ships, yachts, pontoons, schooners etc. Battleships were the major naval
strength. They appeared in the middle XVII century. At this time the ships started forming the strict columns. Earlier, ships lined up before the battle
and mixed afterwards to turn everything into the chaotic scramble. The artillery was used inefficiently with the ships preventing each other from
firing. It was very difficult to command the ships' fire and to carry out coordinated actions. Small vessels stuffed with explosives and inflammables,
fire-ships, floating down the wind could easily find their victims. A small cheap vessel could founder the flagship. The column formation had much
strengthened the warships' effectiveness, but to make the navy really strong it had to consist of equal, mighty ships. Otherwise the enemy can find a
weak spot and break the array.
Thus the introduction of battleships appeared a turning point in military operations on winning the sea domination. Frigates, ships with less
ammunition and of smaller displacement, but of higher speed - were created to conduct cruiser operations.
In the late XVI century Sir Robert Dedly built the first frigate, and 80 years later they got widely used in European fleets. English warships were
usually heavy-loaded with the lower ports being 3 feet above the water. The ports were not to be opened in windy weather.
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