Other-waters

In modern military terminology, 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, since these modern frigates have no sail … Well, boats with engines just don't cut it, so let's talk about something with a sail, now shall we?

A frigate was a medium size 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.

Age of sail

British sailing frigates 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 tactic if there was a shortage of battleships (from the term "line of battle" ship, but more commonly called "ships of the line" or "74s" for the number of guns in the period of the age of sail). Usually frigates would fight in small numbers or singly against other frigates.

They were masterpieces of engineering and design. Their armament ranged from 22 guns on one deck to 44 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, 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 the ‘USS Constitution’, better known as ‘Old Ironsides’, a frigate launched 21 October 1797 1790s. 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 "superfrigates"), 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 Royal Navy fighting instructions ordered British frigates (usually 32-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 mostly unused until after the Second World War, when it would be reappropriated to describe ships that during the war had been called destroyer escorts.

Creation of the frigate

The term "Frigate" was used in the seventeenth century, normally indicating a ship that was faster than usual.

Perhaps one of Englands greatest shipwrights, Sir Phineas Pett (1570-1647), lived for ten years after the construction of one of the worlds 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. … He (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."

This kind of 17th-century "frigate" later developed into the two-decked ship of the line of 60-70 guns.

The classical sailing frigate as we know it from the Napoleonic wars can be traced back to French developments in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. These ships were ship-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. What had used to be the lower gun deck was now totally unarmed and functioned as an orlop 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 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 were good sailers and 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. They soon built copies and started to adapt the type to their own needs.

Early frigates were armed with nine-pounder (4 kg) 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 (11 kg) main batteries.

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