Two-decker

This article is about the type of warship. For the bus type, see Double-decker bus. For other uses, see Double decker.
HMS Asia (1811), British 74-gun warship

A two-decker is a sail warship which carried her guns on two fully armed decks.[1] Usually additional guns were carried on the upper works (forecastle and quarterdeck), but this was not a continuous battery and thus not counted as a full gun deck.

Two-deckers ranged all the way from the small 40-gun Fifth rate up to 80- or even 90-gun ships of the line, with the third-rate of seventy-four guns, or "seventy-four", being the archetype.

  1. ^ Anderson, Romola; Anderson, R. C. (2012-06-11). A Short History of the Sailing Ship. Courier Corporation. ISBN 978-0-486-14952-3.