I've been looking forward to this for months. The most authetnically built replica Tall Ship built within the past 150 years, the Hermione, arrived in Alexandria this week. This ship is a replica of the Hermione which sailed in the late 1700s to bring the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States, then the 13 colonies still. This is essentially a working, 34-gun frigate.

One of the other last working frigates in existence, the USS Constitution (American's only still-working frigate from that era), was a decidely more "modern" 44-gun frigate. Back then it was called a "heavy frigate" and made frigates like the Hermione obsolete. Frigates like Hermione were special though -- during the revolutionary and napoleanic wars, (1770s - 1810s) the 28-36 gun frigates were the real workshorses of the fleet. They were the fastest ships floating, and would serve as scouts for the main fleet or as independent commands by the most daring and ambitious captains. Every sailor, whether you served before the mast or on the quarterdeck, wanted to serve on a frigate.