When dealing with Frigate's they can resemble destroyers, cruisers, and some times even battleships. So the question is how is a ship determined to be a Frigate and what is the purpose of a Frigate?

frig·ate (frĭg'ĭt)
n.
A warship, usually of 4,000 to 9,000 displacement tons, that is larger than a destroyer and smaller than a cruiser, used primarily for escort duty.
A high-speed, medium-sized sailing war vessel of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
Archaic. A fast, light vessel, such as a sailboat

The definition and purpose of a frigate depends on the time period and nation that is in question.

The term 'frigate' was originally applied to any relatively fast and elegant ship, regardless to type size or number of guns or gun decks. The first ship constructed as a frigate was a British ship built in 1645 the Constant Warwick, (400 tons 26 guns). The term frigate was used loosely until then.

In 1653 the British Admiralty's Fighting Instructions divided ships into distinct classes, frigates are classified as “fourth rates”, the largest non line-of-battle ships, having one gun deck and less that 54 guns.

In French, the term 'frigate' meant 'to build long and low', these also had only one gun deck. The British Admiralty was so impressed with French frigate qualities in the Seven Years (1756-63) war that it built copies of French ships that had been captured.

The peak of sailing frigates are the American “super frigates”, Built heavy, with sides nearly as thick as ships of the line, with as many as 44 guns up to the 24 lb size in the main battery. To me, this is the periods equivalent of a battle cruiser. In the war of 1812, Royal Navy fighting instructions ordered British frigates (usually of 38-guns or less, most of twelve pounds or less) to never engage American frigates at any thing less than a 2:1 advantage. I think that Razzee’s (sp?) were considered frigates although I don’t have any historical reference. A razzee as I understand it was a ship of the line that had its upper deck(s) removed and continued service in a lower rate. I think of a frigates purpose up to this point as the equivalent to a cruisers today.

The steam age up to World War Two is a confusing time for frigates. With steam frigates become cruisers and the term frigate becomes disused. Then the term frigate reappears in World War Two as a ship class meaning an escort (anti submarine) vessel larger than a corvette but smaller than a destroyer. This by US standers of the time was a Destroyer Escort and those that were sent to England were termed by them as frigates.

In 1943 the US revived the term with the Tacoma class patrol frigate (PF), witch coincidentally is very similar to a destroyer escort. With the advent of missile technology both surface to air and surface to surface, frigates designation changed to FF (fleet or fast?) frigate and FFG – guided missile, where they remain as escorts.

Back to "Ships and Aircraft of the US Fleet, this time the 16th Edition, from 2005. According to this work:

"US Frigates have been primarily Anti- Submarine Warfare ships with the Oliver Hazard Perry class also providing limited Anti-Air Warfare defense to amphibious and replenishment groups and convoys. Despite the higher speed and missile capabilities of these ships they are still not capable of serving as effective escorts for carrier battle groups in wartime."

It further goes on to explain that:

"This type of warship was oficially classified as "escort vessel" (DE) from its inception in the US Navy in 1941 although the DE type invariably was called "destroyer escort" often in official publications."

It states that with the emergence of the Soviet submarine threat in the 1950s, these ships began to gain importance and states that at that time the term "Frigate" was being applied to LARGE destroyer-type ships given the designation of DL (Destroyer Leader)/ DLG (with guided missles) and DLGN (nuclear powered).

Missile-armed ESCORT ships were designated DEG, but then ALL escort ships were changed to "frigate" (FF/FFG) on 30 June 1975. What you find in the section of the book dealing with "Frigates" is both FF/FFGs as well as historical information on post WW II ships which were originally classified as DE/DEG.

So it appears that the term "Frigate" in US usage while possibly briefly used to describe ships larger than a Destroyer, since 1975 refers to ships with a primary ASW mission, and they trace their lineage to ships smaller than Destroyers, specifically the old DE which were intended to be called "escort vessels" (and became known as Destroyer Escorts no doubt because of the convenience of the initials.)

Tom

Hey all,

This is so cool. I have learned quite a bit just by a few people posting. Thanks go to all of you. I might just keep my silly questions coming and I'll tap all of you for my sea education....

I remember when I was a kid in China, the Chinese characters for Frigate 护卫舰 means "escort" for the first 2 characters and the third character means "warship". Chinese character for Destroyer 驱逐舰 means "drive off" for the first 2 characters and the third "warship". From then, I always think Frigate is in a defensive role while Destroyer is in an offensive role. Hence Destroyer should be bigger or at least have more firepower than Frigate. But that could be a misunderstanding carried over from childhood ... maybe the Chinese translated wrong.

Just my 2 cents.
Steven

Wildspear thanks for starting this tread as the replies that have been posted have been very informative, learning all the time

Ciao
Luciano

Littorio,

I'll keep asking the questions as long as the staffies can take it.

That's really cool! Given how the name in the US Navy is now applied to ships which started out designed specifically as "escort" vessels and whose role is primarily defensive (against enemy submarines), that's interesting to find out the same is true in Chinese.

Tom

The Chinese characters meaning is thought provoking. You often hear of things being lost in translation, I think that this may be a situation where the details may get lost but the reflection of idea is clarified. Europeans contact by sea began around 1500, this is well before frigates as a type or class of ship. I imagine that the translation was made as the type developed and was gathered from more than one source (Portuguese, British, French Dutch ect.). The linguistic differences seem to have captured the meaning rather than just a definition. It would be interesting to hear a Chinese historians take on this.

The earliest ships from WWII I can find that were called frigates were the British River Class. (Fans of the book The Cruel Sea might remember that the crew got a River class after their Flower class corvette was sunk) The Rivers were based on merchant ship hulls. That's not to say they took a merchant ship and converted her, but rather they were designed to merchant ship standards and built in yards mored used to building merchant ships. As they were to replace the Flower class they were going to be called corvettes, but as they were larger it was decided to bring back the name frigate for them. The USN built two, Asheville and Natchez which were copies of the Rivers, then built and entire class Tacoma class, in a modified form. There were successful but the USN had the capacity to build huge numbers of actual warship designed ships, and decided to concentrate on those. From what I can find the major difference in the USN between a frigate and a destroyer escort is the later is a pure warship, not a merchant design.

I don't know how the modern ships get classified as frigates, but what has been written so far makes sense.

I like the information about the Chinese characters. That is really interesting.