Hi all,

I've done a bit of searching through Google and as such I'd like to offer my apologies if this has been covered elsewhere on here or if this is the inappropriate section for my query.

I was wondering if anyone could answer a question which has arisen regarding average engagement sizes circa 1768 - 1820. I'm mostly interested in how frequent smaller engagements and the numbers involved. I did come across a list on Wikipedia which provided some accounts of single-ship actions including various dates which was quite insightful.

I realise that there are a fair number of engagements within the allotted time period which involved significant numbers of ships and I'd imagine that smaller skirmishes were far more common than grand fleet actions but again, I maybe wrong.

Thank you for any insight on this one, it is truly appreciated. My copy of "Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail - War at Sea 1756 - 1815" by Bernard Ireland arrived today so this may go someway to answering the above. Unfortunately I won't have an opportunity prior to the weekend to sink my jaws into it.