>However, the US, since it couldnt' out-build the brittish, took a
>different tack. The Constitution class frigates design philosopy was
>similar to that of Battle Cruisers in the Honor Harrington universe:
>Heavily armed to take anything smaller than they, while still fast
>enough to run away from ships of the line.

I'll take your word for it, I have no idea what they were thinking. As I understand it the early US Navy's only hope against the Royal Navy was a few raids and asking the French to do the serious fighting for them - not unreasonably, a fleet of ships of the line took a long time to build and I don't think they caught up with the European Navies in numbers until the late nineteenth century.

They were the first with a true ironclad (Monitor) though, various iron-hulled sailing ships aside.

drakensisthered

So I simply said one of the great trite truths: "There is generally more than one side to a story." - Corwin, Roger Zelazny's 'Courts of Chaos'