General Description
The rattlesnake is a sloop of war, she has 3 masts and she is armed with 18 guns and 2 chasers.
Armament
| Deck | Cannon Count | Cannon Size | Carronade Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gun Deck | 18 | 6pd | 18pd |
| Bow Chasers | 2 | 4pd | 12pd |
Characteristics
The Rattlesnake is an outrageously fast sloop of war, which means she is ship- or square-rigged. For this reason her high speed value means that she should be able to catch up with and force other slower square-rigged ships into combat. This role of tagging is precisely her design. Unlike the Renommee light frigate, the other lightning fast square-rigged vessel, the Rattlesnake carries bow chasers. This permits her to keep her enemy in combat while she closes in on them, making her an even better "tagger" than the Renommee.
Although not as resilient as the Renommee, the difference is not as remarkable as one might suspect for two ships so separate in size and class; a 37.5% lower structure and 25% lower armour is not an unreasonable price to pay for the Rattlesnake's extraordinarily useful bow chasers.
Here is her Sailing Profile. The Rattlesnake is square-rigged and so sails at her fastest around point 135 on a broad reach. Although not maximally fast, she still retains very impressive speeds across the whole range of 105-150. This is because her natural speed value is so high. Sailing at a beam reach, she still outsails essentially all other square-rigged vessels. The Rattlesnake is not as fast relatively as the larger square-rigged vessels running before the wind at points 165-180. However, her high natural speed means that she will still catch these other square-rigged vessels, just not as quickly as on other points. Finally, sailing upwind sees the normal loss of speed for a vessel with her sail plan but again the loss is not sufficiently notable to in general put her speed below that of the other square-rigged ships. In short, the Rattlesnake should have no trouble whatsoever catching other square-rigged vessels but will need to rely on clever manoeuvering and positioning if she is to catch fore-and-aft rigged unrated vessels.
History
The rattlesnake is a 20 gun sloop of war which was designed by John Peck of Boston and built at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1780. She was commissioned in 12th of June 1781. In american service she had a crew of 85 men and 20 guns. On her first crew she had barely been at sea when she met the british ship Assurance of 44 guns. The British captured her and sent her to new york. On 28 July 1781 she was purchased into British service as the sloop HMS Cormorant. She was armed with 18 guns in British service and 120 men.
How to get Crafting recipe
Rattlesnake blue print drops from the brig.
Image Gallery
