Yeah, Fritz, I know, but he actually misses it. I know MWM was also shooting for the same "romantic" feel, but he missed it too.
On Weber's uber-numbers, the entire British fleet in 1812 was less than 150 ships down to 6th rates. There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 to 80 "Line-of-battle-ships" (the top 3 rates) with the venerable 74 being the mainstay. Weber misses those facts entirely.
Where MWM misses the most, is that any anystarport except X could repair a ship, and even down to C or even D could build one. Both MWM and Weber miss that the old sailing ships could pull into a safe achorage, and repair from 1/4 to 1/3 or even more of their ship from raw materials with the tools and skills present on the ship. That rather puts paid to the concept of a 200-ton commercially-viable starship being "reasonable", IMHO.
About the smallest trans-oceanic cargo ships in the "Age of Sail" were like 200 tons "burden" (read "cargo") not displacement.Finally, the concept of "light attack craft" or "fighters" does not fit in with the "Age of Sail" concept, anyway.
David Drake's Lt. Leary series hits the mark better than Weber or MWM, I'm afraid. Weber hits WWII more than anything, and MWM's ship rules always struck me as fitting in the pre-dreadnought era better.
That's just IMO, of course.
