- List of frigate classes of the Royal Navy
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Contents
The frigate before 1690
The initial meaning of frigate in English/British naval service was a fast sailing warship, usually with a relatively low superstructure and a high length:breadth ratio - as distinct from the heavily-armed but slow "great ships" with high fore- and after-castles. The name originated at the end of the 16th century, the first "frigats" being generally small, fast-sailing craft, in particular those employed by Flemish privateers based on Dunkirk and Flushing. Subsequently the term was applied to any vessel with these characteristics, even to a third-rate or fourth-rate ship of the line. In this list, the term is restricted to fifth rates and sixth rates which did not form part of the battlefleet (i.e. were not ships of the line); many of the earliest ships described as English frigates, such as the Constant Warwick of 1645, were fourth rates and thus are not listed below.
The sixth rates from 1690 to 1750
Before the "true" sail frigate come into being in the 1740s, the equivalent was the single-deck cruising vessel of the sixth rate, armed with either 20, 22 or 24 guns, which established itself in the 1690s and lasted until the arrival of the new "true" frigates. Before 1714, many small sixth rates carried fewer than 20 guns, and these have been excluded from this list. For over half a century from the 1690s, the main armament of this type was the 6-pounder gun, until it was replaced by 9-pounder guns just prior to being superseded by the 28-gun sixth-rate frigate.
For ships before the 1745 Establishment, the term 'class' is inappropriate as individual design was left up to the master shipwright in each Royal dockyard - the term 'group' is used as more applicable for ships built to similar specifications.
- 1719 Establishment group 20-gun sixth rates 1720-1728
- Modified 1719 Establishment group 20-gun sixth rates 1732
- 1733 Establishment group 20-gun sixth rates 1734-1742
- Modified 1733 Establishment group 20-gun sixth rates 1741
- 1741 Establishment group 20-gun sixth rates 1742-1746
- Modified 1741 Establishment group 20-gun sixth rates 1746. Note that these two ships had no lower deck gunports, and were thus forerunners of the 'true' frigates like the Lyme and Unicorn of 1748.
- 1745 Establishment group 24-gun sixth rates 1746-1751
- Modified 1745 Establishment group 24-gun sixth rate 1748
- edit] Sail frigates from 1750 – by class
Following the success of the Lyme and Unicorn in 1748, the mid-century period saw the simultaneous introduction in 1756 both of sixth-rate frigates of 28 guns (with a main battery of twenty-four 9-pounder guns, plus four lesser guns mounted on the quarterdeck and/or forecastle) and of fifth-rate frigates of 32 or 36 guns (with a main battery of twenty-six 12-pounder guns, plus six or ten lesser guns mounted on the quarterdeck and/or forecastle).
The American Revolution saw the emergence of new fifth rates of 36 or 38 guns which carried a main battery of 18-pounder guns, and were thus known as "heavy" frigates, while the French Revolutionary War brought about the introduction of a few 24-pounder gun armed frigates. In the 1830s, new types emerged with a main battery of 32-pounder guns.
9-pounder armed frigates (from 1750)
- Lowestoffe class 28-gun sixth rates 1756
- HMS Lowestoffe 1756
- HMS Tartar 1756
- Coventry class 28-gun sixth rates 1757-85
- HMS Lizard 1757
- HMS Coventry 1757
- HMS Liverpool 1758
- HMS Maidstone 1758
- HMS Boreas 1757 - built of fir instead of oak
- HMS Hussar 1757 - built of fir instead of oak
- HMS Shannon 1757 - built of fir instead of oak
- HMS Trent 1757 - built of fir instead of oak
- HMS Actaeon 1757 - built of fir instead of oak
- HMS Active 1758
- HMS Levant 1758
- HMS Cerberus 1758
- HMS Aquilon 1758
- HMS Griffin 1758
- HMS Argo 1758
- HMS Milford 1759
- HMS Guadeloupe 1763
- HMS Carysfort 1766
- HMS Hind 1785
- HMS Laurel - cancelled 1783.
- Mermaid class 28-gun sixth rates 1761-63
- HMS Mermaid 1761
- HMS Hussar 1763
- HMS Solebay 1763
- Modified Mermaid class 28-gun sixth rates 1773-74
- HMS Greyhound 1773
- HMS Triton 1773
- HMS Boreas 1774
- Enterprise class 28-gun sixth rates 1773-87
- HMS Siren 1773
- HMS Fox 1773
- HMS Surprise 1774
- HMS Enterprise 1774
- HMS Actaeon 1775
- HMS Proserpine 1777
- HMS Medea 1778
- HMS Andromeda 1777
- HMS Aurora 1777
- HMS Sibyl 1779
- HMS Brilliant 1779
- HMS Pomona 1778
- HMS Crescent 1779
- HMS Nemesis 1780
- HMS Resource 1778
- HMS Mercury 1779
- HMS Pegasus 1779
- HMS Cyclops 1779
- HMS Vestal 1779
- HMS Laurel 1779
- HMS Thisbe 1783
- HMS Circe 1785
- HMS Rose 1783
- HMS Hussar 1784
- HMS Alligator 1787
- HMS Dido 1784
- HMS Lapwing 1785
12-pounder armed frigates
Almost all of the following were 32-gun type (armed with 26 x 12-pounder guns on the upper deck and 6 smaller guns on the quarter-deck and forecastle); one class (the Venus class of 1757-58) had 36 guns (with 26 x 12-pounder guns on the upper deck and 10 smaller guns on the quarter-deck and forecastle).
- Southampton class 32-gun fifth rates 1757
- HMS Southampton 1757-59
- HMS Minerva 1759
- HMS Vestal 1757
- HMS Diana 1757
- Richmond class 32-gun fifth rates 1757-58 (batch 1), 1762-63 (batch 2)
- HMS Richmond 1757
- HMS Juno 1757
- HMS Thames 1758
- HMS Lark 1762
- HMS Boston 1762
- HMS Jason 1763
- Venus class 36-gun fifth rates 1757-58
- HMS Pallas 1757
- HMS Venus 1758
- HMS Brilliant 1757
- Niger class 32-gun fifth rates 1758-66
- HMS Stag 1758
- HMS Alarm 1758
- edit] 18-pounder armed frigates
In general, the following were either 36-gun type (armed with 26 x 18-pounder guns on the upper deck and 10 smaller guns on the quarter-deck and forecastle) or 38-gun type (with 28 x 18-pounder guns on the upper deck and 10 smaller guns on the quarter-deck and forecastle); however, some classes of smaller ships had just 32 guns (with 26 x 18-pounder guns on the upper deck and just 6 smaller guns on the quarter-deck and forecastle).
- edit] 24-pounder armed frigates
- 1794 razees 44-gun (converted from 64-gun ships of the line in 1794)
- HMS Indefatigable converted 1794
- HMS Anson converted 1794
- HMS Magnanime converted 1794
- Endymion class 40-gun fifth rate 1797
- HMS Endymion 1797
- HMS Severn 1813
- edit] 32-pounder armed frigates
- HMS Castor 36-gun fifth rate 1832
- edit] Early steam frigates – by class
During the 1840s, the introduction of steam propulsion was to radically change the nature of the frigate. Initial trials were with paddle-driven vessels, but these had numerous disadvantages, not least that the paddle wheels restricted the numbers of guns that could be mounted on the broadside. So the application of the screw propellor meant that a full broadside could still be carried, and a number of sail frigates were adapted, while during the 1850s the first frigates designed from the start to have screw propulsion were ordered. It is important to remember that all these early steam vessels still carried a full rig of masts and sails, and that steam power remained a means of assistance to these vessels.
In 1887 all frigates and corvettes in the British Navy were re-categorised as 'cruisers', and the term 'frigate' was abolished, not to re-emerge until the Second World War, at which time it was resurrected to describe a totally different type of escort vessel.
- edit] Modern frigates – by class
Note that, unlike the previous sections, no lists of the individual ships comprising each class are shown below; they are to be found in the articles on the separate classes.
- River class — 138 ships, 1941–1944
- Colony class — 21 ships
- Captain class — 78 ships
- Loch class — 26 ships
- Bay class — 21 ships (redesigned Loch class for anti-aircraft escort)
- Type 15 — 23 ships (full rebuilds of World War II destroyer hulls)
- Type 16 — 10 ships (partial rebuilds of wartime destroyer hulls)
- Type 41 Leopard class — 4 ships
- Type 61 Salisbury class — 4 ships
- Type 12 Whitby class — 6 ships
- Type 12M Rothesay class — 9 ships
- Type 12I Leander class — 26 ships (subclasses: 8 Batch 1, 8 Batch 2, 10 Batch 3)
- Type 14 Blackwood class — 12 ships
- Type 81 Tribal class — 7 ships
- Type 21 Amazon class — 8 ships
- Type 22 — 14 ships (subclasses: Broadsword 4, Boxer 6, Cornwall 4)
- Type 23 Duke class — 16 ships
Sail frigates - alphabeticaly
Note that frigate names were routinely re-used, so that there were often many vessels which re-used the same names over the course of nearly two centuries.
- Actaeon - sold 1766
- Africaine 38 - captured by France
- Aigle (ex-French Aigle, captured 1782)
- Amphitrite 38 (1816)
- Andromache (1829)
- Arethusa
- Boadicea 38
- Bombay 40 (c.1793) - renamed Ceylon
- Bon-Acquis (ex-French Bon-Acquis, captured 1757)
- Boreas - sold 1770
- Brilliant 36
- Caroline (ex-French Caroline, captured September 1809)
- Constant Warwick 26 (c.1646)
- Cornwallis 56 (c.1800) - renamed Akbar
- Coventry 28 1757
- Danae (ex-French Danae, captured 1759)
- Diamond 32 (1774)
- Diana (1757) - sold 1793
- Endymion 40 (1797) - captured by USS President 1815
- Flora 36 (1780) - wrecked in 1809
- Freya (ex-Danish Freya, captured 25 July 1800)
- Hebe 40 (ex-French Hebe, captured 1782) - broken up 1811
- Hussar - name used by several ships in this period
- Indefatigable 44 (build 1784 as a 64 gun ship of the line, razeed)
- Iphigenia - captured by France in 1810
- Java 38 (launched 1808, captured from French 1811) - captured by USS Constitution in 1813
- Latona 38 (1779), sold in 1816
- Laurel 38 (ex-French La Fidèle, captured 16 August 1809 at the surrender of Flushing)
- Lively 38 (1804), wrecked off Malta in 1810
- Lutine 38 (launched in 1779, transferred from French Navy in 1793) - wrecked in 1799 off Holland
- Lyme 18 (1748), wrecked 1760
- Macedonian 38 (1810), captured by USS United States in 1812, broken up 1828
- Madagascar 46 (1822)
- Melampe (ex-French Melampe, captured 1758)
- Minerva 38 (1780) - broken up in 1803
- Nereide 38, captured 1797, sold 1816.
- Newcastle - name used by several ships in this period
- Orpheus 32 (1773)
- Pallas - name used by several ships in this period
- Phaeton 38 (1782)
- Pitt 36 (1805)
- Pomone 44 (ex-French Pomone, captured 1794) - broken up in 1802
- Rainbow 44 (1747) - sold in 1802
- Resistance 44, sank 24 July 1798
- Saldanha - shipwrecked in Lough Swilly, Donegal, 4 December 1811
- Salsette 36 (1807)
- Santa Leocadia 34 (ex-Spanish Santa Leocadia, captured 1781)
- Santa Margarita 34 (ex-Spanish Santa Margarita, captured 1779)
- Shannon 28 (1757) - broken up in 1765
- Shannon 38 (1806) - broken up 1859
- Sirius 36 (1797) - scuttled during the Mauritius campaign of 1810
- Southampton 32 (1757) - wrecked off the Bahamas in 1812
- Surprise 28 (1796) - ex-French L'Unité captured 1796, sold in 1802
- Thetis 38 (1782)
- Trent 28 (1757) - sold in 1764
- Trent 36 (1796) - broken up in 1823
- Trincomalee 38 (1817) - preserved afloat in Hartlepool, UK
- Unicorn 28 (1748) - broken up 1771
- Unicorn 46 (1824) - preserved in Scotland
- Venus (ex-French Venus, captured 17 September 1809)
- Venus 36
Reference sources
- Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates (Conway Maritime, 1992); The Heavy Frigate (Conway Maritime, 1994); Warships of the Napoleonic Era (Chatham Publishing, 1999); Frigates of the Napoleonic Wars (Chatham Publishing, 2000)
- Rif Winfield, The Sail and Steam Navy List, 1815-1889 (co-author David Lyon, Chatham Publishing, 2004) ISBN 1-86176-032-9;
British Warships in the Age of Sail: 1793-1817 (2nd edition, Seaforth Publishing, 2008) ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4;
British Warships in the Age of Sail: 1714-1792 (Seaforth Publishing, 2007) ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6;
British Warships in the Age of Sail: 1603-1714 (Seaforth Publishing, 2009) ISBN 978-1-84832-040-6.
See also
- edit] Modern frigates – by class
- 1794 razees 44-gun (converted from 64-gun ships of the line in 1794)
- edit] 24-pounder armed frigates
- Lowestoffe class 28-gun sixth rates 1756
- edit] Sail frigates from 1750 – by class
- Modified 1745 Establishment group 24-gun sixth rate 1748
- 1745 Establishment group 24-gun sixth rates 1746-1751
- Modified 1741 Establishment group 20-gun sixth rates 1746. Note that these two ships had no lower deck gunports, and were thus forerunners of the 'true' frigates like the Lyme and Unicorn of 1748.
- 1741 Establishment group 20-gun sixth rates 1742-1746
- Modified 1733 Establishment group 20-gun sixth rates 1741
- 1733 Establishment group 20-gun sixth rates 1734-1742
- Modified 1719 Establishment group 20-gun sixth rates 1732
Categories:- Lists of Royal Navy ships by type
- Lists of frigates
- Frigates of the Royal Navy
- Military units and formations of the United Kingdom
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