Quote Originally Posted by NimitsTexan View Post
I may be remembering it completely wrong (it has been years since I read it), but I got the impression the Norfolk was supposed to be an 18lbs 44 (more of a USS Chesapeake "44" than a true Constitution-class), still superior to the 28-gun Surprise, but not suicidally so.
I can't recall in it the book, like you its been a quite while since I read it, but in the movie Acheron is mentioned as having 18-pounders. Like Chesapeake, Philadelphia when being build was referred to with a 44 gun rating but rerated at 36 guns. By the time of the War of 1812, when the book takes place, the United States had pretty much standardized their ratings. All 18-pounder frigates were rated at 36 or 38 guns. Only the big 24-pounder frigates were rated at 44 guns. Maybe O'Brian didn't put much thought into it when he wrote the book.