Frigate
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La Rieuse, a 30-gun oar frigate (1674-1698) |
For the bird, see Frigatebird.Frigate is a name which has been used for several distinct types of
warships at different times. It has referred to a variety of ship roles and sizes. In the age of sail, it referred to a ship smaller and faster than a battleship, used for patrolling and escort work rather than fighting fleet actions. In modern military terminology, the definition of a frigate is a warship intended to protect other warships and
merchant marine ships and as
anti-submarine warfare (ASW) combatants for amphibious expeditionary forces, underway replenishment groups, and merchant
convoys. However, many ships known as frigates have more closely resembled other classes of ship, including everything ranging from a
corvette to a
destroyer,
cruiser or even a
battleship. The variation comes from a number of sources, such as the era, the particulars of battlefield roles, and the standards of a given country.
The term "frigate" was used in the seventeenth century, normally indicating a ship that was faster than usual.
Perhaps one of England's greatest shipwrights,
Sir Phineas Pett (
1570-
1647), lived for ten years after the construction of one of the world's greatest ships, the
Sovereign of the Seas was built and launched by his son Peter. Phineas Pett's innovations were perhaps to be finally realized in the designs of his son Peter Pett for the
Frigate a design of English shipwrightry worthy of
Mathew Baker. Sir Peter Pett was almost as distinguished as his father. He was the builder of the first frigate,
Constant Warwick.
Sir William Symonds said of this vessel:
"She was an incomparable sailer, remarkable for her sharpness and the fineness of her lines; and many were built like her." Pett
"introduced convex lines on the immersed part of the hull, with the studding and sprit sails; and, in short, he appears to have fully deserved his character of being the best ship architect of his time."The classic sailing frigate as we know it from the Napoleonic wars can be traced back to French developments in the second quarter of the 18th century. These ships were
full rigged and carried all their main guns on a single gun deck, what had used to be the upper gun deck on similarly-sized two-decked ships earlier. The lower 'gun' deck now carried no armament and functioned as "berth deck" where the crew lived, and was in fact placed below the waterline of the new frigates. The new sailing frigates were able to fight with all their guns when the seas were so rough that comparable two-deckers had to close the gun-ports on their lower decks. Like the larger 74 which was developed at the same time, the new frigates sailed very well and were good fighting vessels due to a combination of long hulls and low upperworks compared to vessels of comparable size and firepower.
The
Royal Navy captured a handful of the new
French frigates during the early stages of the
Seven Years' War (1756–1763) and were duly impressed by them, particularly for their inshore handling capabilities. They soon built copies and started to adapt the type to their own needs, setting the standard for other frigates as a superpower.
Early frigates were armed with 9-pounder guns, development soon led to 12- and 18-pounder (5 and 8 kg) armed frigates, and at the turn of the century the biggest ones even carried 24 pounder ) main batteries.
Royal Navy frigates of the late 18th century were based on the 1780-vintage
Perseverance class, which displaced around 900 tons and carried 36 guns; this successful class was followed by the
Tribune class batch of fifteen ships starting in 1801 that displaced over 1,000 tons and carried 38 guns.
A frigate was a medium-sized sailing warship with one gun deck, plus guns on the spar deck. It was faster than the larger
ship of the line and larger than a
sloop-of-war. British sailing frigates during the period 1640-1860 were rated
fourth-rate,
fifth-rate and
sixth-rate according to the
rating system of the Royal Navy.
Frigates were perhaps the hardest-worked of warship types during the
age of sail. They scouted for the fleet, went on commerce-raiding missions and patrols, conveyed messages and dignitaries, and filled in places in the
line of battle if there was a shortage of
battleships (from the term "line of battle" ship, but more commonly referred to as "
ships of the line" or referred to by the number of guns they carried (for example, "74s"). Usually frigates would fight in small numbers or singly against other frigates. Unlike larger ships that were placed in ordinary, frigates were kept in service in peacetime both as a cost-saving measure and to provide quality experience to frigate captains and officers which would be useful in wartime. Frigates may also carry marines or naval infantry for land-based and ship-boarding operations.
In the 17th century, frigates were masterpieces of engineering and design; the British added more sails and weapons, the Dutch made frigates with a shallow draft and the French added bow and stern weapons and
Baroque designs. Frigate armament ranged from 22 guns on one deck to up to even 70+ guns on two decks. Common armament was 32 to 44 long guns, from 8 to 24 pounders (3.6 to 11 kg), plus a few
carronades (large bore short range guns), which weren't counted in the rating of the ship. In the early steam age (1840-60) steam frigates were the fastest ships around, finally evolving into the cruisers of the 20th century.
The oldest commissioned warship in the US Navy is
USS Constitution, better known as "Old Ironsides", a frigate launched
21 October 1797. It is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world;
HMS Victory, although older, is maintained in drydock. The US Navy's 44-gun frigates (or "super-frigates"), which usually actually carried 56-60 guns, were very powerful and tough. These ships were so well-respected that they were often seen as equal to 4th-rate ships of the line, and RN fighting instructions ordered British frigates (usually of 38-guns or less) to never engage American frigates at any less than a 2:1 advantage.
In the late
1800s, the term "frigate" fell out of naval fashion; ships that had been designated frigates were redesignated "cruising-ships" and from there to
cruisers. The term "frigate" would lie unused until the Second World War, when it would be reappropriated to describe convoy escort vessels similar in size to (though slower and cheaper to build than)
destroyer escorts.
Modern frigates are only related to earlier frigates by name. The term "frigate" passed out of use in the mid-19th century and was readopted during
World War II by the British to describe an anti-submarine escort vessel larger than a
corvette but smaller than a
destroyer. Such vessels possessed somewhat less firepower than a
destroyer, had less fuel capacity and a lower top speed due to inferior propulsion systems. To cross even the Atlantic ocean, such a vessel needs to be refueled en route. These limitations were not much hardship for a WWII anti-submarine vessel but would seriously hinder a battle fleet in which destroyers were replaced by such frigates.
In the 1960s and 1970s, "guided missile frigates" have brought an anti-air warfare (AAW) capability to the frigate mission, but they have some limitations. Designed as cost-efficient surface combatants, they lack the multi-mission capability necessary for modern surface combatants faced with multiple, high-technology threats and offer limited capacity for growth. Until 1975 in the US Navy, these vessels were called "
Ocean Escorts" and designated "DE" or "DEG" (a holdover from World War II, when they were called "
Destroyer Escorts"). Other navies called them "frigates" from the end of World War II on.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, guided missile "frigates" were commissioned in the United States Navy, which were actually AAW
cruisers built on
destroyer-style hulls; some of them (the American
Bainbridge-,
Truxtun-,
California- and
Virginia-classes) were nuclear-powered. These were far larger than any other frigates ever seen (though the use of these "frigates" in comparison to the larger "cruisers" was analogous to the relationship between age of sail frigates and
ships of the line), and all were properly reclassified as "guided missile cruisers" in 1975 (except for the smaller
Farragut-class class ships, which were reclassified as
guided missile destroyers) and struck from the
Naval Vessel Register in the
1990s. With the improvement of the anti-air and anti-missile missiles (like the
Aster 15), such frigates are increasingly used as a fleet defense platform.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, some frigates are specialised in
anti-submarine warfare (ASW). They bear improved
sonar equipment,
torpedoes, and even missile-carried anti-submarine torpedoes like
ASROC. They retain minimal anti-surface capabilities with anti-ship missiles (like the
Exocet), but carry weapons against air threats only for self-defense.
Especially for ASW, most modern frigates have
landing decks aft and
hangars to carry
helicopters: Without the need of closing distance to detected unknown subsurface contacts and thus risking to be attacked a frigate utilizes its helicopters equipped with sensors such as
sonobuoys, wire-mounted dipping sonar and
magnetic anomaly detectors to identify possible threats and combat confirmed targets with
torpedoes or
depth-charges carried by the helicopter. With their onboard radar helicopters can also be used to reconnoiter for targets over the horizon and if equipped with
anti-ship missiles such as
Penguin for anti-surface warfare as well. They are invaluable for
search and rescue operation and largely replaced the use of
dinghies or the manouvre of bringing ships alongside for duties such as ferrying people, mail and cargo between ships or to shore. With helicopters, these tasks can be accomplished faster and less dangerously and also allows the frigate to keep course.
Modern times have seen the arrival of
stealth frigates fitted with anti-missile capabilities. Their shapes, designed to offer a minimal radar signature, also give them a good air penetration; the manoeuverability of these frigates has been compared to those of sailing ships. A good example is the French
La Fayette-class with the
Aster 15 missile.
Some new classes of frigates are optimized for high-speed deployment and combat with small craft ahead of the usual idea of sea combat between equal opponents, an example of this school of thought is the American
Littoral Combat Ship, as exemplified by the first ship of the type,
USS Freedom.
*
List of frigate classes*
List of frigate classes by country*
List of frigates of the Royal Navy*
List of frigates of the United States Navy*
List of sailing frigates of the United States Navy*
Halifax-class frigates of the Canadian Navy*
Rating system of the Royal Navy*
United States Navy 1975 ship reclassification*
Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald*Gresham, John D., "The swift and sure steeds of the fighting sail fleet were its dashing frigates",
Military Heritage magazine, (John D. Gresham, Military Heritage, February 2002, Volume 3, No.4, pp. 12 to 17 and p. 87).
*
Frigates from battleships-cruisers.co.uk - history and pictures of United Kingdom frigates since World War II
*
Frigates from Destroyers OnLine - pictures, history, crews of United States frigates since 1963
*
"So Uneasy a Ship: The Unfortunate Career of the Frigate Chesapeake" by Joseph C. Mosier*
The Development of the Full-Rigged Ship From the Carrack to the Full-RiggerNote that Algerian, Tripolitan and Tunisian sail frigates are listed under Turkey. All Italian city-state frigates are listed under Italy.
Partially from: http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/ships/ship-ffg.html
