Come to think of it, the only frigate armed entirely with carronades that I can think of was USS Essex. And didn't she suffer for it!

There was no evidence that French ships were better-built than British ones (with the possible exception of the 'Surveyors of the Navy' class, or Armada class, built in merchant ship yards). French ships were sometimes better designed, but then it wasn't usually long before the British captured one and built to that design (such as the Leda class of frigates, like HMS Shannon). French ships usually carried stores for less the 6 months that the British favoured, and so their ships were sometimes faster. They were often more lightly built, which meant they did not last so long. These, of course, are generalisations and students of naval history can usually find exceptions.

American 'catters who are interested in the development of their own Navy should get hold of 'The American Sailing Navy' by Howard I Chapelle. There were 74s being built in 1799, but by 1801 an Act of Congress limited the US Navy to the ships it already had. Work on the 74s was stopped, several frigates were laid up in ordinary as an economy measure, and gunboats built for coast defence. All down to your Mr Jefferson, I believe.

Gareth - I'm not sure that there would ever be tonnage 'left over' for more fuel in the Panzershciffe. They were already 1,700 tons overweight, in spite of adopting welding and deisel engines to save weight. And the Hipper class (of 14,000 tons) had less range than the Deutschlands.