In the 17th—19th centuries, a frigate was a three-masted, fully rigged sailing ship, often carrying 30—40 guns in all. Smaller and faster than ships of the line the principal vessels of naval warfare , frigates served as scouts or as escorts protecting merchant convoys; they also cruised the seas as merchant raiders themselves.
In World War II, Britain revived the term frigate using it to describe escort ships equipped with sonar and depth charges, and used these ships to guard convoys from submarines. In the postwar decades, the frigate also adopted an antiaircraft role, adding radar and surface-to-air missiles. Modern frigates can sail at a speed of 30 knots and carry a crew of These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'frigate.
Send us feedback. See more words from the same year. Accessed 12 Nov. More Definitions for frigate. After the application of steam to navigation steam frigates of largely increased size and power were built, and formed the main part of the navies of the world till about , when the introduction of ironclads superseded them. Etymology: [F. See Fabricate. A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.
In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built". These could be warships carrying their principal battery of carriage-mounted guns on a single deck or on two decks.
The term was generally used for ships too small to stand in the line of battle, although early line-of-battle ships were frequently referred to as frigates when they were built for speed.
In the 18th century, the term referred to ships which were usually as long as a ship-of-the-line and were square-rigged on all three masts, but were faster and with lighter armament, used for patrolling and escort. In the definition adopted by the British Admiralty, they were rated ships of at least 28 guns, carrying their principal armament upon a single continuous deck—the upper deck, while ships-of-the-line possessed two or more continuous decks bearing batteries of guns.
Frigates did not carry any guns on their lower decks; confusingly, the lower deck was often referred to as the "gun deck" in the British Royal Navy, even for frigates, where it did not carry any guns or have gunports. Both types could additionally carry smaller carriage-mounted guns on their quarter decks and forecastles.
Technically, rated ships with fewer than 28 guns could not be classed as frigates but as "post ships"; however, in common parlance most post ships were often described as "frigates", the same casual misuse of the term being extended to smaller two-decked ships that were too small to stand in the line of battle.
In the Royal Navy, the next class vessel to a ship of the line; formerly a light nimble ship built for the purpose of sailing swiftly. The name was early known in the Mediterranean, and applied to a long kind of vessel, navigated in that sea, with sails and oars. The English were the first who appeared on the ocean with these ships, and equipped them for war as well as for commerce. These vessels mounted from 28 to 60 guns, and made excellent cruisers. Frigate is now apocryphal, being carried up to tons.
The donkey-frigate was a late invention to serve patronage, and sprigs of certain houses were educated in them. They carried 28 guns, carronades, and were about tons burden, commanded by captains who sometimes found a commander in a sloop which could blow him out of water. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus :. Somehow, in the 21st century, we started naming ships with strange acronyms Originally one of five principal types of merchant ship hulls in the days before sailing ships were identified by their rig.
During the 18th century the word began to mean a three-masted vessel, square rigged on each mast, then evolved into describing a class of warship which was part of all navies. They were normally armed with from 24 to 44 guns carried on a single gun-deck. In navies where ships had a rate according to the number of guns they carried, they were fifth- or sixth-rate ships, and thus not expected to lie in the line of battle.
Possessing superior sailing qualities to the larger ships of the line, they were used with the fleet as lookouts and, in battle, as repeating ships to fly the admiral's signals so that other ships in the line, which might be blanketed from the admiral by the smoke of gunfire, could read his signals. Alternatively, frigates worked independently of the fleet, cruising in search of privateers or as escort ships for convoys, in which case they were generally given the generic name of cruisers.
There was a convention in the days of sailing navies that larger ships did not engage frigates during fleet battles unless the latter opened fire first, though it was not unknown for frigates occasionally to engage ships of the line. This convention only applied in fixed battle and did not hold good if a frigate were met at sea unaccompanied by a fleet.
During the Napoleonic Wars with France — a class of gun frigates, rated as fourth rates, was introduced in Britain, carrying guns on two decks. Governor Letcher of Virginia ordered that this ship be raised and be converted into an effective, usable frigate.
There is good reason to believe that we have taken the Iphigenie, a French frigate. New Word List Word List.
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