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The meaning and value of the word is so entirely misapprehended by the best English writers, being, in fact, derived from our own way of applying it, that it becomes important to ascertain its true value. A "nobility," which is numerous enough to fill a separate ball-room in every sixth-rate town, it needs no argument to show, cannot be a nobility in any English sense.
MR. BARRAUD. "The 'Caledonia, built at Plymouth in 1808, is 2616 tons burthen, carries 120 guns, and requires 875 men without officers. You can imagine the size of a vessel that could contain so many men. But all are not so large: that is a first-rate: there are some sixth-rate, which only carry twenty guns, are not more than 400 tons burthen, and their complement of men is only 155.
The lower parts of the town, adjacent to the Hudson, are about as odoriferous and architecturally beautiful as a sixth-rate seaport in "the old country." While, as for Broadway itself that much be-praised- boulevard Broadway, the "great," the "much pumpkins, I guess" to see which, I had been told by enthusiastic Americans, was to behold the very thirteenth wonder of the world!
In 1677, according to James' History, the smallest fifth-rate then afloat corresponds nearest to the Roebuck, and, no doubt, by Dampier's time this vessel had been reduced in her rating. The vessel of 1677 is described as being of 265 tons and 28 guns, "sakers and minions," with a complement of about 100 men. The largest sixth-rate was 199 tons, 18 guns, and 85 men.
As far as we can judge, a first-rate of the latter end of the seventeenth century mounted her guns on three whole decks, a quarter-deck, forecastle, and poop; a second-rate mounted hers on three whole decks and a quarter-deck; a third-rate on two whole decks, a quarter-deck, forecastle, and poop; a fourth-rate on two whole decks and a quarter-deck; a fifth-rate on her first gun-deck, with a few guns on her quarter-deck; a sixth-rate on a single-deck, with or without any on her quarter-deck.
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