Two-decker

This article is about the type of warship. For the bus type, see Double-decker bus. For other uses, see Double decker.

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.

HMS Asia (1811), British 74-gun warship

The Moonlight Battle by Dominic Serres, with a British two-decker in the foreground.

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.

See also

• Three-decker