Yes. Officers above a certain rank have to be on a "rated" ship, and IIRC the stone frigates were all 4th-rates, which meant a senior Post Captain (later just a

Yes. Officers above a certain rank have to be on a "rated" ship, and IIRC the stone frigates were all 4th-rates, which meant a senior Post Captain (later just a captain) could be in command there and not lose his seniority. And in fact, the first stone frigate command (of a rock in the Atlantic) was given to the lieutenant who had led the assault that took the island. Since the act gave him promotion to Captain, he couldn't command his old cutter anymore, so they came up with the stone frigate idea. Later on it became more of an unofficial punishment; a way to take a commander who was too senior to just keep on the beach and put him somewhere that he wouldn't do too much harm. For any "Master and Commander" book series fans, Jack was threatened with being sent off to a stone frigate in I think "The Yellow Admiral".