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163-424: Carronades were initially found to be very successful, but they eventually disappeared as naval artillery advanced, with the introduction of rifling and consequent change in the shape of the projectile, exploding shells replacing solid shot, and naval engagements being fought at longer ranges. The carronade was designed as a short-range naval weapon with a low muzzle velocity for merchant ships, but it also found

326-408: A smoothbore barrel without a reduction in accuracy. Muskets are smoothbore , large caliber weapons using ball-shaped ammunition fired at relatively low velocity. Due to the high cost, great difficulty of precision manufacturing, and the need to load readily and speedily from the muzzle, musket balls were generally a loose fit in the barrels. Consequently, on firing the balls would often bounce off

489-484: A 12-pounder. This reduced the weight of the cannon, but also had the effect of reducing the velocity of the cannonball , and hence range. A factor mitigating the deficiency in range was that carronades could be bored with a much tighter windage than long guns, so that more of the propellant went to moving the shot, rather than bypassing it. Naval artillery during the Age of Sail simply was not accurate, regardless of whether

652-539: A cannon on the downward roll of the ship would often ricochet off the sea into the enemy hull. A merchant ship would more often aim at the bigger target of the masts and rigging in the hope of escaping a pursuing enemy. The higher trajectory required of carronades at ranges of 400 yd (370 m) or more was little disadvantage for their use by merchant ships or any naval ship fleeing a more powerful enemy. The theory for centuries had always associated long barrels with long range, but experience had also shown that shortening

815-454: A carronade was usually mounted on a lug underneath the barrel, rather than the usual trunnions to either side. As a result, the carronade had an unusually high centre of gravity . Towards the end of the period of use, some carronades were fitted with trunnions to lower their centres of gravity, to create a variant known as the "gunnade". Gunnades, introduced around 1820, are distinct from the earliest carronades, which also featured trunnions. In

978-419: A consistent unit of measure, i.e. metric (mm) or imperial (in). The third method simply reports the angle of the grooves relative to the bore axis, measured in degrees. The latter two methods have the inherent advantage of expressing twist rate as a ratio and give an easy understanding if a twist rate is relatively slow or fast even when comparing bores of differing diameters. In 1879, George Greenhill ,

1141-668: A continuous line of guns from bow to stern at the level of the quarterdeck/forecastle), were built, which were an almost exact match in size and firepower to the American 44-gun frigates. Frigates were perhaps the hardest-worked of warship types during the Age of Sail . While smaller than a ship-of-the-line , they were formidable opponents for the large numbers of sloops and gunboats , not to mention privateers or merchantmen. Able to carry six months' stores, they had very long range; and vessels larger than frigates were considered too valuable to operate independently. Frigates scouted for

1304-605: A diameter of 0.5 inches (13 mm) and a length of 1.5 inches (38 mm), the Greenhill formula would give a value of 25, which means 1 turn in 25 inches (640 mm). Improved formulas for determining stability and twist rates include the Miller Twist Rule and the McGyro program developed by Bill Davis and Robert McCoy. If an insufficient twist rate is used, the bullet will begin to yaw and then tumble; this

1467-454: A disadvantage if they were fought outside their point blank range, such as in the case of USS Essex , a frigate equipped almost solely with carronades, which was reduced to a hulk by the longer-range guns of HMS Phoebe and HMS Cherub off Valparaiso, Chile in the March 28, 1814 Battle of Valparaiso . Warships often aimed at the enemy's hull to destroy its capacity for battle. A ball fired from

1630-485: A few experimental ships were fitted with a carronade-only armament, such as HMS  Glatton and HMS  Rainbow . Glatton , a fourth-rate ship with 56 guns, had a more destructive broadside at short range than HMS Victory , a first-rate ship with 100 guns. Glatton and Rainbow were both successful in battle, though the carronade's lack of range was a tactical disadvantage of this arrangement against an opponent who could keep out of carronade range, but within

1793-409: A greater chance of glory, promotion, and prize money . Unlike larger ships that were placed in ordinary , frigates were kept in service in peacetime as a cost-saving measure and to provide experience to frigate captains and officers which would be useful in wartime. Frigates could also carry marines for boarding enemy ships or for operations on shore; in 1832, the frigate USS  Potomac landed

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1956-495: A half times the roundshot. Its invention is variously ascribed to Lieutenant General Robert Melville in 1759, or to Charles Gascoigne , who was manager of the Carron Company from 1769 to 1779. In its early years, the weapon was sometimes called a "mellvinade" or a "gasconade". The carronade can be seen as the culmination of a development of naval guns reducing the barrel length and gunpowder charge. The Carron Company

2119-544: A light armament, built for speed and maneuverability. The etymology of the word remains uncertain, although it may have originated as a corruption of aphractus , a Latin word for an open vessel with no lower deck. Aphractus , in turn, derived from the Ancient Greek phrase ἄφρακτος ναῦς ( aphraktos naus ) – "undefended ship" . In 1583, during the Eighty Years' War of 1568–1648, Habsburg Spain recovered

2282-500: A niche role on warships. It was produced by the Carron ironworks and was at first sold as a system with the gun, mounting, and shot all together. The standard package of shot per gun was 25 roundshot , 15 barshot , 15 double-headed shot , 10 "single" grapeshot , and 10 "single" canister shot . "Single" meant that the shot weighed the same as the roundshot, while some other canister and grapeshot were also included which weighed one and

2445-507: A partially armed lower deck, from which it was known as a 'half-battery' or demi-batterie ship. Removing the guns from this deck allowed the height of the hull upperworks to be lowered, giving the resulting 'true-frigate' much improved sailing qualities. The unarmed deck meant that the frigate's guns were carried comparatively high above the waterline; as a result, when seas were too rough for two-deckers to open their lower deck gunports , frigates were still able to fight with all their guns (see

2608-461: A party of 282 sailors and Marines ashore in the US Navy's first Sumatran expedition . Frigates remained a crucial element of navies until the mid-19th century. The first ironclads were classified as "frigates" because of the number of guns they carried. However, terminology changed as iron and steam became the norm, and the role of the frigate was assumed first by the protected cruiser and then by

2771-402: A pivoting mounting which allowed the gun to be rotated, while rearward recoil was contained, sometimes with a slider carriage. In some versions, a wedge was placed underneath the chamber to control elevation, while in later versions an elevating screw was used. Carronades had a chamber that was one-caliber smaller than the bore; for example, an 18-pounder carronade had its chamber bored equal to

2934-469: A pre-drilled barrel was to use a cutter mounted on a square-section rod, accurately twisted into a spiral of the desired pitch, mounted in two fixed square-section holes. As the cutter was advanced through the barrel it twisted at a uniform rate governed by the pitch. The first cut was shallow. The cutter points were gradually expanded as repeated cuts were made. The blades were in slots in a wooden dowel which were gradually packed out with slips of paper until

3097-670: A professor of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich , London, UK developed a rule of thumb for calculating the optimal twist rate for lead-core bullets. This shortcut uses the bullet's length, needing no allowances for weight or nose shape. The eponymous Greenhill Formula , still used today, is: twist = C D 2 L × S G 10.9 {\displaystyle {\text{twist}}={\frac {CD^{2}}{L}}\times {\sqrt {\frac {\mathrm {SG} }{10.9}}}} where C {\displaystyle C}

3260-482: A projectile determines the twist rate needed to gyroscopically stabilize it: barrels intended for short, large-diameter projectiles such as spherical lead balls require a very low twist rate, such as 1 turn in 48 inches (122 cm). Barrels intended for long, small-diameter projectiles, such as the ultra-low-drag 80- grain 0.223 inch bullets (5.2 g, 5.56 mm), use twist rates of 1 turn in 8 inches (20 cm) or faster. Rifling which increases

3423-414: A rifled or smooth bore, a good fit was needed to seal the bore and provide the best possible accuracy from the gun. To ease the force required to load the projectile, these early guns used an undersized ball, and a patch made of cloth, paper, or leather to fill the windage (the gap between the ball and the walls of the bore). The patch acted as a wadding and provided some degree of pressure sealing , kept

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3586-638: A round ball; these will have twist rates as low as 1 in 72 inches (180 cm), or slightly longer, although for a typical multi-purpose muzzleloader rifle, a twist rate of 1 in 48 inches (120 cm) is very common. The M16A2 rifle, which is designed to fire the 5.56×45mm NATO SS109 ball and L110 tracer bullets, has a 1 in 7-inch (18 cm) or 32 calibers twist. Civilian AR-15 rifles are commonly found with 1 in 12 inches (30 cm) or 54.8 calibers for older rifles and 1 in 9 inches (23 cm) or 41.1 calibers for most newer rifles, although some are made with 1 in 7 inches (18 cm) or 32 calibers twist rates,

3749-604: A single 68-pounder on a pivot, and then did the same with two of the aft 32-pounder carronades. By doing this, he replaced 70 pounds of broadside with 136 pounds (assuming that both 68-pounders would usually fire on the same side), and ensured that Raven would have less dead-space to her front and rear. Carronades were not counted in a ship of the line ' s rated number of guns. The classification of Royal Navy vessels in this period can therefore mislead; they would often be carrying fewer guns but more pieces of ordnance than they were described as carrying. The same applied to

3912-414: A single diameter. Rifled bores may be described by the bore diameter (the diameter across the lands or high points in the rifling), or by groove diameter (the diameter across the grooves or low points in the rifling). Differences in naming conventions for cartridges can cause confusion; for example, the projectiles of the .303 British are actually slightly larger in diameter than the projectiles of

4075-587: A smaller gun crew, which was very important for merchant ships, and they were faster to reload. Carronades initially became popular on British merchant ships during the American Revolutionary War . A lightweight gun that needed only a small gun crew and was devastating at short range was well suited to defending merchant ships against French and American privateers . The French came in possession of their first carronades in December 1779 with

4238-409: A spherical cannonball in supersonic flight is much greater than in subsonic flight. For a given weight of powder, a larger ball, having a large mass, has a lower maximum velocity which reduces the range of supersonic flight. But the increase in the distance of subsonic flight may have more than compensated, as the air resistance is proportional to the square of the diameter but the mass is proportional to

4401-495: A standard design averaging a hull length of 135 ft (41 m) and an average draught of 13 ft (4.0 m). The new frigates recorded sailing speeds of up to 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph), significantly faster than their predecessor vessels. In 1778, the British Admiralty introduced a larger "heavy" frigate, with a main battery of twenty-six or twenty-eight 18-pounder guns (with smaller guns carried on

4564-417: A throwback to the earliest types of rifling, has become popular, especially in handguns . Polygonal barrels tend to have longer service lives because the reduction of the sharp edges of the land (the grooves are the spaces that are cut out, and the resulting ridges are called lands) reduces erosion of the barrel. Supporters of polygonal rifling also claim higher velocities and greater accuracy. Polygonal rifling

4727-673: A very high spin rate which can cause projectile jacket ruptures causing high velocity spin stabilized projectiles to disintegrate in flight. Projectiles made out of mono metals cannot practically achieve flight and spin velocities such that they disintegrate in flight due to their spin rate. Smokeless powder can produce muzzle velocities of approximately 1,600 m/s (5,200 ft/s) for spin stabilized projectiles and more advanced propellants used in smoothbore tank guns can produce muzzle velocities of approximately 1,800 m/s (5,900 ft/s). A higher twist than needed can also cause more subtle problems with accuracy: Any inconsistency within

4890-426: A wide variety of ships have been classified as frigates, and the reasons for such classification have not been consistent. While some navies have used the word 'frigate' principally for large ocean-going anti-submarine warfare (ASW) combatants, others have used the term to describe ships that are otherwise recognizable as corvettes, destroyers, and even nuclear-powered guided-missile cruisers . Some European navies use

5053-472: Is 150 (use 180 for muzzle velocities higher than 2,800 f/s); D {\displaystyle D} is the bullet's diameter in inches; L {\displaystyle L} is the bullet's length in inches; and S G {\displaystyle \mathrm {SG} } is the bullet's specific gravity (10.9 for lead-core bullets, which cancels out the second half of the equation). The original value of C {\displaystyle C}

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5216-407: Is also invaluable for search and rescue operation and has largely replaced the use of small boats or the jackstay rig for such duties as transferring personnel, mail and cargo between ships or to shore. With helicopters these tasks can be accomplished faster and less dangerously, and without the need for the frigate to slow down or change course. Frigates designed in the 1960s and 1970s, such as

5379-530: Is an example of a specialised anti-submarine warfare frigate, though it also has Sea Wolf surface-to-air missiles for point defense plus Exocet surface-to-surface missiles for limited offensive capability. Especially for anti-submarine warfare, most modern frigates have a landing deck and hangar aft to operate helicopters , eliminating the need for the frigate to close with unknown sub-surface threats, and using fast helicopters to attack nuclear submarines which may be faster than surface warships. For this task

5542-619: Is currently seen on pistols from CZ , Heckler & Koch , Glock , Tanfoglio , and the Kahr Arms ( P series only), as well as the Desert Eagle . For field artillery pieces, the extended range, full bore (ERFB) concept developed in early 1970s by Dennis Hyatt Jenkins and Luis Palacio of Gerald Bull 's Space Research Corporation for the GC-45 howitzer replaces the bourrelet with small nubs, which both tightly fit into lands of

5705-404: Is in fact fairly common. Since a reduction in twist rate is very detrimental to accuracy, gunsmiths who are machining a new barrel from a rifled blank will often measure the twist carefully so they may put the faster rate, no matter how minute the difference is, at the muzzle end. The original firearms were loaded from the muzzle by forcing a ball from the muzzle to the chamber. Whether using

5868-415: Is not capable of imparting a spin to a projectile, so a rifled barrel has a non-circular cross-section. Typically the rifled barrel contains one or more grooves that run down its length, giving it a cross-section resembling an internal gear , though it can also take the shape of a polygon , usually with rounded corners. Since the barrel is not circular in cross-section, it cannot be accurately described with

6031-448: Is removed from the chamber. The specified diameter of the throat may be somewhat greater than groove diameter, and may be enlarged by use if hot powder gas melts the interior barrel surface when the rifle is fired. Freebore is a groove-diameter length of smoothbore barrel without lands forward of the throat. Freebore allows the bullet to transition from static friction to sliding friction and gain linear momentum prior to encountering

6194-677: Is the Iver Huitfeldt class of the Royal Danish Navy . Stealth technology has been introduced in modern frigate design by the French La Fayette class design. Frigate shapes are designed to offer a minimal radar cross section , which also lends them good air penetration; the maneuverability of these frigates has been compared to that of sailing ships. Examples are the Italian and French Horizon class with

6357-585: Is the U.S. littoral combat ship (LCS). As of 2015, all Oliver Hazard Perry -class frigates in the United States Navy have been decommissioned, and their role partially being assumed by the new LCS. While the LCS class ships are smaller than the frigate class they will replace, they offer a similar degree of weaponry while requiring less than half the crew complement and offering a top speed of over 40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph). A major advantage for

6520-502: Is the twist rate expressed in bore diameters; L {\displaystyle L} is the twist length required to complete one full projectile revolution (in mm or in); and D bore {\displaystyle D_{\text{bore}}} is the bore diameter (diameter of the lands, in mm or in). The twist travel L {\displaystyle L} and the bore diameter D bore {\displaystyle D_{\text{bore}}} must be expressed in

6683-457: Is the twist rate. For example, an M4 Carbine with a twist rate of 1 in 7 inches (177.8 mm) and a muzzle velocity of 3,050 feet per second (930 m/s) will give the bullet a spin of 930 m/s / 0.1778 m = 5.2 kHz (314,000 rpm). Excessive rotational speed can exceed the bullet's designed limits and the resulting centrifugal force can cause the bullet to disintegrate radially during flight. A barrel of circular bore cross-section

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6846-411: Is usually seen as "keyholing", where bullets leave elongated holes in the target as they strike at an angle. Once the bullet starts to yaw, any hope of accuracy is lost, as the bullet will begin to veer off in random directions as it precesses . Conversely, too high a rate of twist can also cause problems. The excessive twist can cause accelerated barrel wear, and coupled with high velocities also induce

7009-421: Is usually sized slightly larger than the projectile, so the loaded cartridge can be inserted and removed easily, but the throat should be as close as practical to the groove diameter of the barrel. Upon firing, the projectile expands under the pressure from the chamber, and obturates to fit the throat. The bullet then travels down the throat and engages the rifling, where it is engraved, and begins to spin. Engraving

7172-478: The California and Virginia classes – were nuclear-powered (DLGN). These "frigates" were roughly mid-way in size between cruisers and destroyers. This was similar to the use of the term "frigate" during the age of sail during which it referred to a medium-sized warship, but it was inconsistent with conventions used by other contemporary navies which regarded frigates as being smaller than destroyers. During

7335-606: The De Zeven Provinciën -class air defence and command frigate of the Royal Netherlands Navy . These ships are armed with VL Standard Missile 2 Block IIIA , one or two Goalkeeper CIWS systems, ( HNLMS  Evertsen has two Goalkeepers, the rest of the ships have the capacity for another one.) VL Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles , a special SMART-L radar and a Thales Active Phased Array Radar (APAR), all of which are for air defence. Another example

7498-446: The .308 Winchester , because the ".303" refers to the bore diameter in inches (bullet is .312), while the ".308" refers to the bullet diameter in inches (7.92 mm and 7.82 mm, respectively). Despite differences in form, the common goal of rifling is to deliver the projectile accurately to the target. In addition to imparting the spin to the bullet, the barrel must hold the projectile securely and concentrically as it travels down

7661-461: The 1975 ship reclassification , the large American frigates were redesignated as guided-missile cruisers or destroyers (CG/CGN/DDG), while ocean escorts (the American classification for ships smaller than destroyers, with hull symbol DE/DEG ( destroyer escort )) such as the Knox -class were reclassified as frigates (FF/FFG), sometimes called "fast frigates". In the late 1970s, as a gradual successor to

7824-468: The 20 mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun used in some current fighter jets and the larger 30 mm GAU-8 Avenger Gatling gun used in the A10 Thunderbolt II close air support jet. In these applications it allows lighter construction of the barrels by decreasing chamber pressures through the use of low initial twist rates but ensuring the projectiles have sufficient stability once they leave

7987-581: The Age of Sail . Constitution and her sister ships President and United States were created in a response to deal with the Barbary Coast pirates and in conjunction with the Naval Act of 1794 . Joshua Humphreys proposed that only live oak , a tree that grew only in America, should be used to build these ships. The British, wounded by repeated defeats in single-ship actions, responded to

8150-1457: The Aster 15 and Aster 30 missile for anti-missile capabilities, the German F125 and Sachsen -class frigates, the Turkish TF2000 type frigates with the MK-41 VLS , the Indian Shivalik , Talwar and Nilgiri classes with the Brahmos missile system and the Malaysian Maharaja Lela class with the Naval Strike Missile . The modern French Navy applies the term first-class frigate and second-class frigate to both destroyers and frigates in service. Pennant numbers remain divided between F-series numbers for those ships internationally recognised as frigates and D-series pennant numbers for those more traditionally recognised as destroyers. This can result in some confusion as certain classes are referred to as frigates in French service while similar ships in other navies are referred to as destroyers. This also results in some recent classes of French ships such as

8313-550: The British Royal Navy were rated as Captain-class frigates. The U.S. Navy's two Canadian -built Asheville -class and 96 British-influenced, American-built Tacoma -class frigates that followed originally were classified as "patrol gunboats " (PG) in the U.S. Navy but on 15 April 1943 were all reclassified as patrol frigates (PF) . The introduction of the surface-to-air missile after World War II made relatively small ships effective for anti-aircraft warfare:

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8476-530: The Dutch Republic became the first navy to build the larger ocean-going frigates. The Dutch navy had three principal tasks in the struggle against Spain: to protect Dutch merchant ships at sea, to blockade the ports of Spanish-held Flanders to damage trade and halt enemy privateering , and to fight the Spanish fleet and prevent troop landings. The first two tasks required speed, shallowness of draft for

8639-540: The East India Company , which were not generally expected to engage in combat. A number of the merchant ships in the Battle of Pulo Aura were armed with cannonades. This was a fight between a fleet of East India Company merchantmen under command of Commodore Nathaniel Dance and a French naval squadron under Admiral Linois ; it was unusual for merchant ships to engage in combat, but they successfully beat off

8802-657: The Eurosam Aster 15 ) allow modern guided-missile frigates to form the core of many modern navies and to be used as a fleet defence platform, without the need for specialised anti-air warfare frigates. Modern destroyers and frigates have sufficient endurance and seaworthiness for long voyages and so are considered blue water vessels, while corvettes (even the largest ones capable of carrying an anti-submarine warfare helicopter) are typically deployed in coastal or littoral zones so are regarded as brown-water or green-water vessels. According to Dr. Sidharth Kaushal of

8965-569: The First Boer War . In the siege of Potchefstroom , the Boers used 'Ou Griet', an antique carronade mounted on a wagon axle, against the British fort. The original design of the carronade included a different type of mounting on a wooden carriage, where the cannon itself had a projecting loop on the bottom that was pinned to the gun carriage, which was fastened to the side of the ship, with

9128-656: The Horizon class being among the largest in the world to carry the rating of frigate. The Frégates de Taille Intermédiaire (FTI), which means frigates of intermediate size, is a French military program to design and create a planned class of frigates to be used by the French Navy. At the moment, the program consists of five ships, with commissioning planned from 2023 onwards . In the German Navy , frigates were used to replace aging destroyers; however in size and role

9291-509: The Knox frigates, the US Navy introduced the 51-ship Oliver Hazard Perry -class guided-missile frigates (FFG), the last of which was decommissioned in 2015, although some serve in other navies. By 1995 the older guided-missile cruisers and destroyers were replaced by the Ticonderoga -class cruisers and Arleigh Burke -class destroyers . One of the most successful post-1945 designs was

9454-640: The Kyan Sittha-class frigate . Before the Kyan Sittha class, the Myanmar Navy also produced an Aung Zeya -class frigate . Although the size of the Myanmar Navy is quite small, it is producing modern guided-missile frigates with the help of Russia, China, and India. However, the fleets of the Myanmar Navy are still expanding with several on-going shipbuilding programmes, including one 135 m (442 ft 11 in), 4,000-tonne frigate with

9617-667: The RIM-2 Terrier missile, upgraded to the RIM-67 Standard ER missile in the 1980s. This type of ship was intended primarily to defend aircraft carriers against anti-ship cruise missiles , augmenting and eventually replacing converted World War II cruisers (CAG/CLG/CG) in this role. The guided-missile frigates also had an anti-submarine capability that most of the World War II cruiser conversions lacked. Some of these ships – Bainbridge and Truxtun along with

9780-577: The Type 41 ( Leopard -class) air-defence frigates built on the same hull. Multi-role frigates like the MEKO 200 , Anzac and Halifax classes are designed for navies needing warships deployed in a variety of situations that a general frigate class would not be able to fulfill and not requiring the need for deploying destroyers . At the opposite end of the spectrum, some frigates are specialised for anti-submarine warfare . Increasing submarine speeds towards

9943-582: The United States Navy 's destroyer escorts (DE), although the latter had greater speed and offensive armament to better suit them to fleet deployments. The destroyer escort concept came from design studies by the General Board of the United States Navy in 1940, as modified by requirements established by a British commission in 1941 prior to the American entry into the war, for deep-water escorts. The American-built destroyer escorts serving in

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10106-521: The action of 13 January 1797 , for an example when this was decisive). The Royal Navy captured a number of the new French frigates, including Médée , during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) and were impressed by them, particularly for their inshore handling capabilities. They soon built copies (ordered in 1747), based on a French privateer named Tygre , and started to adapt

10269-457: The broadside tactic in naval warfare. At this time, a further design evolved, reintroducing oars and resulting in galley frigates such as HMS  Charles Galley of 1676, which was rated as a 32-gun fifth-rate but also had a bank of 40 oars set below the upper deck that could propel the ship in the absence of a favorable wind. In Danish, the word "fregat" often applies to warships carrying as few as 16 guns, such as HMS  Falcon , which

10432-524: The light cruiser . Frigates are often the vessel of choice in historical naval novels due to their relative freedom compared to ships-of-the-line (kept for fleet actions) and smaller vessels (generally assigned to a home port and less widely ranging). For example, the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey–Maturin series , C. S. Forester 's Horatio Hornblower series and Alexander Kent 's Richard Bolitho series. The motion picture Master and Commander: The Far Side of

10595-617: The single-ship action in which the French frigate Piémontaise captured the East Indiaman Warren Hastings on 11 June 1805, the naval historian William James compared the 18-pounder carronades on Warren Hastings with the 18-pounder carronades that the British Royal Navy used. The EIC 18-pounder was 5 ft (1.5 m) long, and weighed 15.5 cwt; the Royal Navy's 18-pounder carronade

10758-673: The southern Netherlands from the Protestant rebels. This soon resulted in the use of the occupied ports as bases for privateers , the " Dunkirkers ", to attack the shipping of the Dutch and their allies. To achieve this the Dunkirkers developed small, maneuverable, sailing vessels that came to be referred to as frigates. The success of these Dunkirker vessels influenced the ship design of other navies contending with them, but because most regular navies required ships of greater endurance than

10921-583: The vertical missile launch systems . The four planned Tamandaré -class frigates of the Brazilian Navy will be responsible for introducing ships with stealth technology in the national navy and the Latin American region, with the first boat expected to be launched in 2024. Some new classes of ships similar to corvettes are optimized for high-speed deployment and combat with small craft rather than combat between equal opponents; an example

11084-593: The "guided-missile frigate". In the USN, these vessels were called " ocean escorts " and designated "DE" or "DEG" until 1975 – a holdover from the World War II destroyer escort or "DE". While the Royal Canadian Navy used similar designations for their warships built in the 1950s, the British Royal Navy maintained the use of the term "frigate"; in the 1990s the RCN re-introduced the frigate designation. Likewise,

11247-518: The 16th century, it had to be engraved by hand and consequently did not become commonplace until the mid-19th century. Due to the laborious and expensive manufacturing process involved, early rifled firearms were primarily used by wealthy recreational hunters, who did not need to fire their weapons many times in rapid succession and appreciated the increased accuracy. Rifled firearms were not popular with military users since they were difficult to clean, and loading projectiles presented numerous challenges. If

11410-627: The 9,137 ton vessel to speeds of up to 14 knots and rifled breechloading 110-pdr guns, Warrior is the ancestor of all modern warships. During the 1880s, as warship design shifted from iron to steel and cruising warships without sails started to appear, the term "frigate" fell out of use. Vessels with armoured sides were designated as " battleships " or " armoured cruisers ", while " protected cruisers " only possessed an armoured deck, and unarmoured vessels, including frigates and sloops, were classified as " unprotected cruisers ". Modern frigates are related to earlier frigates only by name. The term "frigate"

11573-523: The American destroyer escort , frigates are usually less expensive to build and maintain. Small anti-submarine escorts designed for naval use from scratch had previously been classified as sloops by the Royal Navy, and the Black Swan -class sloops of 1939–1945 (propelled by steam turbines as opposed to cheaper triple-expansion steam engines) were as large as the new types of frigate, and more heavily armed. 22 of these were reclassified as frigates after

11736-760: The British Leander -class frigate, which was used by several navies. Laid down in 1959, the Leander class was based on the previous Type 12 anti-submarine frigate but equipped for anti-aircraft use as well. They were used by the UK into the 1990s, at which point some were sold onto other navies. The Leander design, or improved versions of it, were licence-built for other navies as well. Nearly all modern frigates are equipped with some form of offensive or defensive missiles, and as such are rated as guided-missile frigates (FFG). Improvements in surface-to-air missiles (e.g.,

11899-474: The British classified as a sloop. Under the rating system of the Royal Navy , by the middle of the 18th century, the term "frigate" was technically restricted to single-decked ships of the fifth rate , though small 28-gun frigates classed as sixth rate . The classic sailing frigate, or 'true frigate', well-known today for its role in the Napoleonic Wars , can be traced back to French developments in

12062-553: The Dunkirker frigates could provide, the term soon came to apply less exclusively to any relatively fast and elegant sail-only warship. In French, the term "frigate" gave rise to a verb – frégater , meaning 'to build long and low', and to an adjective, adding more confusion. Even the huge English Sovereign of the Seas could be described as "a delicate frigate" by a contemporary after her upper decks were reduced in 1651. The navy of

12225-577: The English and Spanish to the lighter frigates, carrying around 40 guns and weighing around 300 tons. The effectiveness of the Dutch frigates became most evident in the Battle of the Downs in 1639, encouraging most other navies, especially the English, to adopt similar designs. The fleets built by the Commonwealth of England in the 1650s generally consisted of ships described as "frigates",

12388-606: The French Navy refers to missile-equipped ships, up to cruiser-sized ships ( Suffren , Tourville , and Horizon classes ), by the name of "frégate", while smaller units are named aviso . The Soviet Navy used the term "guard-ship" ( сторожевой корабль ). From the 1950s to the 1970s, the United States Navy commissioned ships classed as guided-missile frigates ( hull classification symbol DLG or DLGN, literally meaning guided-missile destroyer leaders ), which were actually anti-aircraft warfare cruisers built on destroyer -style hulls. These had one or two twin launchers per ship for

12551-536: The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The British produced larger, 38-gun, and slightly smaller, 36-gun, versions and also a 32-gun design that can be considered an 'economy version'. The 32-gun frigates also had the advantage that they could be built by the many smaller, less-specialised shipbuilders. Frigates could (and usually did) additionally carry smaller carriage-mounted guns on their quarterdecks and forecastles (the superstructures above

12714-449: The French and American navies when they adopted the carronade. The carronade, like other naval guns, was mounted with ropes to restrain the recoil , but the details of the gun mounting were usually quite different. The carronade was typically mounted on a sliding rather than a wheeled gun carriage , and elevation was achieved with a turnscrew , like field guns , rather than the quoins (wooden wedges) usual for naval guns. In addition,

12877-435: The French in series of engagements, convincing them they were actually facing a powerful force of Royal Navy vessels; this action was later used as the basis for the climactic battle in the book H.M.S Surprise , part of the famous Aubrey and Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian . The East India Company (EIC) also used carronades, and these appear to be larger, and heavier than those that Royal Navy used. In his discussion of

13040-461: The German PzH 2000 . ERFB may be combined with base bleed . A gain-twist or progressive rifling begins with a slow twist rate that gradually increases down the bore, resulting in very little initial change in the projectile's angular momentum during the first few inches of bullet travel after it enters the throat . This enables the bullet to remain essentially undisturbed and trued to

13203-467: The LCS ships is that they are designed around specific mission modules allowing them to fulfill a variety of roles. The modular system also allows for most upgrades to be performed ashore and installed later into the ship, keeping the ships available for deployment for the maximum time. The latest U.S. deactivation plans mean that this is the first time that the U.S. Navy has been without a frigate class of ships since 1943 (technically USS  Constitution

13366-531: The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, describing the difference between 21st century destroyers and frigates, the larger "destroyers can more easily carry and generate the power for more powerful high-resolution radar and a larger number of vertical launch cells. They can thus provide theatre wide air and missile defence for forces such as a carrier battle group and typically serve this function". By contrast

13529-547: The US Navy's Knox -class frigate , West Germany's Bremen -class frigate , and Royal Navy's Type 22 frigate were equipped with a small number of short-ranged surface-to-air missiles ( Sea Sparrow or Sea Wolf ) for point defense only. By contrast newer frigates starting with the Oliver Hazard Perry -class frigate are specialised for "zone-defense" air defence , because of the major developments in fighter jets and ballistic missiles . Recent examples include

13692-497: The World features a reconstructed historic frigate, HMS Rose , to depict Aubrey's frigate HMS Surprise . Vessels classed as frigates continued to play a great role in navies with the adoption of steam power in the 19th century. In the 1830s, navies experimented with large paddle steamers equipped with large guns mounted on one deck, which were termed "paddle frigates". From the mid-1840s on, frigates which more closely resembled

13855-469: The ball and the inside of the gun barrel, as a result of irregularities in the size of cannonballs and the difficulty of boring out gun barrels . If the windage of a cannon was off as much as a quarter of an inch (.25 in (6.4 mm)), it could cause a considerable loss in power and accuracy. The manufacturing practices introduced by the Carron Company reduced the windage considerably. Despite

14018-418: The ball seated on the charge of black powder , and kept the ball concentric to the bore. In rifled barrels, the patch also provided a means to transfer the spin from the rifling to the bullet, as the patch is engraved rather than the ball. Until the advent of the hollow-based Minié ball , which expands and obturates upon firing to seal the bore and engage the rifling, the patch provided the best means of getting

14181-458: The barrel can be shorter and therefore lighter. Long guns were also much heavier than carronades because they were over-specified to be capable of being double-shotted, whereas it was dangerous to do this in a carronade. A ship could carry more carronades, or carronades of a larger caliber, than long guns, and carronades could be mounted on the upper decks, where heavy long guns could cause the ship to be top-heavy and unstable. Carronades also required

14344-404: The barrel did not reduce performance as much as expected (e.g., the English musket barrel between 1630 and 1660 went down from 4–3 ft (1.22–0.91 m) in length.). Rifling Rifling is the term for helical grooves machined into the internal surface of a firearms 's barrel for imparting a spin to a projectile to improve its aerodynamic stability and accuracy. It is also

14507-479: The barrel should have a twist rate sufficient to spin stabilize any bullet that it would reasonably be expected to fire, but not significantly more. Large diameter bullets provide more stability, as the larger radius provides more gyroscopic inertia , while long bullets are harder to stabilize, as they tend to be very backheavy and the aerodynamic pressures have a longer arm ("lever") to act on. The slowest twist rates are found in muzzle-loading firearms meant to fire

14670-490: The barrel's twist rate . The general definition of the spin S {\displaystyle S} of an object rotating around a single axis can be written as: S = υ C {\displaystyle S={\frac {\upsilon }{C}}} where υ {\displaystyle \upsilon } is the linear velocity of a point in the rotating object (in units of distance/time) and C {\displaystyle C} refers to

14833-470: The barrel. Guns capable of firing these projectiles have achieved significant increases in range, but this is compensated with a significantly (3–4 times) decreased accuracy, due to which they were not adopted by NATO militaries. Unlike a shell narrower than the gun's bore with a sabot , ERFB shells use the full bore, permitting a larger payload. Examples include the South African G5 and

14996-577: The barrel. It is seldom used in commercially available products, though notably on the Smith & Wesson Model 460 (X-treme Velocity Revolver). Frigate A frigate ( / ˈ f r ɪ ɡ ɪ t / ) is a type of warship . In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuverability, intended to be used in scouting, escort and patrol roles. The term

15159-404: The barrel. This requires that the rifling meet a number of tasks: Rifling may not begin immediately forward of the chamber. There may be an unrifled throat ahead of the chamber so a cartridge may be chambered without pushing the bullet into the rifling. This reduces the force required to load a cartridge into the chamber, and prevents leaving a bullet stuck in the rifling when an unfired cartridge

15322-528: The battle line in an emergency. In the 1790s the French built a small number of large 24-pounder frigates, such as Forte and Egyptienne , they also cut-down (reduced the height of the hull to give only one continuous gun deck) a number of older ships-of-the-line (including Diadème ) to produce super-heavy frigates; the resulting ship was known as a rasée . It is not known whether the French were seeking to produce very potent cruisers or merely to address stability problems in old ships. The British, alarmed by

15485-474: The bullet was of sufficient diameter to take up the rifling, a large mallet was required to force it down the bore. If, on the other hand, it was of reduced diameter to assist in its insertion, the bullet would not fully engage the rifling and accuracy was reduced. The first practical military weapons using rifling with black powder were breech loaders such as the Queen Anne pistol . For best performance,

15648-418: The bullet, such as a void that causes an unequal distribution of mass, may be magnified by the spin. Undersized bullets also have problems, as they may not enter the rifling exactly concentric and coaxial to the bore, and excess twist will exacerbate the accuracy problems this causes. A bullet fired from a rifled barrel can spin at over 300,000 rpm (5 kHz ), depending on the bullet's muzzle velocity and

15811-455: The cannon was a gun or a carronade. Almost all barrels were smoothbore, not rifled, and tolerances had wide variations on everything from the actual roundness and straightness of the barrel to shot size in relation to the bore (windage). Sights were rudimentary or non-existent, and elevation was controlled by wedges and guesswork. As a result, effective or decisive naval battles were generally fought at ranges under (100 yd (91 m)) where

15974-554: The captains still appreciated long guns for their increased range, since they were not expected to engage in fighting in line-of-battle, but rather often found themselves engaged in long chases or attempts to work to windward. It was often better tactically to attempt to shoot the opponent's rigging down at range rather than close in for direct combat, where the weaker hulls of lighter vessels were at risk. They also often found themselves far from home or harbors, where repairs and spare yards, masts or rigging could be found. Generally, although

16137-472: The capture of the brig Finkastre by the frigate Précieuse , but the weapon was judged ineffective and was not adopted by them at the time. However, in the action of 4 September 1782 , the impact of a single carronade broadside fired at close range by the frigate HMS  Rainbow under Henry Trollope caused a wounded French captain to capitulate and surrender the Hébé after a short fight. The carronade

16300-479: The carronade's heavier ball was useful and its shorter range was not a huge problem. Technological improvements changed the capabilities of naval armament by the nineteenth century, but muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon were still not very accurate. Consequently, naval tactics in line of battle counted on the effect of rapid broadsides at short range, to which the carronade could make a significant contribution. In smaller vessels such as frigates, privateers, and raiders,

16463-404: The case mouth. After engaging the rifling at the throat, the bullet is progressively subjected to accelerated angular momentum as it is propelled down the barrel. The theoretical advantage is that by gradually increasing the spin rate, torque is imparted along a much longer bore length, allowing thermomechanical stress to be spread over a larger area rather than being focused predominantly at

16626-456: The circumference of the circle that this measuring point performs around the axis of rotation. A bullet that matches the rifling of the firing barrel will exit that barrel with a spin: S = υ 0 L {\displaystyle S={\frac {\upsilon _{0}}{L}}} where υ 0 {\displaystyle \upsilon _{0}} is the muzzle velocity and L {\displaystyle L}

16789-627: The corvette, allowing manufacture by yards unused to warship construction. The first frigates of the River class (1941) were essentially two sets of corvette machinery in one larger hull, armed with the latest Hedgehog anti-submarine weapon. The frigate possessed less offensive firepower and speed than a destroyer , including an escort destroyer , but such qualities were not required for anti-submarine warfare. Submarines were slow while submerged, and ASDIC sets did not operate effectively at speeds of over 20 knots (23  mph ; 37  km/h ). Rather,

16952-427: The cube. The Victory ' s 68 lb carronade is reported to have had a maximum range of 1,280 yd (1,170 m) at an angle of 5 degrees with a 5 lb charge of gunpowder. The structure of Victory ' s forecastle limited the weight of the guns. The other gun on the forecastle was a medium 12 lb cannon, which had a maximum range of 1,320 yd (1,210 m). Carronades were not noticeably short range for either

17115-635: The end of World War II (see German Type XXI submarine ) greatly reduced the margin of speed superiority of frigate over submarine. The frigate could no longer be slow and powered by mercantile machinery and consequently postwar frigates, such as the Whitby class , were faster. Such ships carry improved sonar equipment, such as the variable depth sonar or towed array , and specialised weapons such as torpedoes , forward-throwing weapons such as Limbo and missile-carried anti-submarine torpedoes such as ASROC or Ikara . The Royal Navy's original Type 22 frigate

17278-447: The end of the 15th century only used straight grooves, and it was not until he received help from Kotter that a working spiral-grooved firearm was made. There may have been attempts even earlier than this, as the main inspiration of rifled firearms came from archers and crossbowmen who realized that their projectiles flew far faster and more accurately when they imparted rotation through twisted fletchings. Though true rifling dates from

17441-592: The entire armament of unrated vessels. For instance, the Ballahoo - and Cuckoo -class schooners were armed only with four 12-pounder carronades. Second, gunboats such as those that the Americans deployed at the Battle of Lake Borgne often had one large 18-, 24-, or 32-pounder gun forward on a pivot, and two smaller carronades aft. Finally, larger vessels carried a few 12-, 18-, or 24-pounders to arm their ship's boats— cutters , pinnaces , launches , barges , and

17604-456: The firepower, measured in weight of metal (the combined weight of all projectiles fired in one broadside), of these vessels. The disadvantages of the carronade were that it had a much shorter range and was less accurate than a long gun. The British quickly saw the advantages of the new weapon and soon employed it on a wide scale. The US Navy also copied the design soon after its appearance. The French and other nations eventually adopted variations of

17767-441: The fleet, went on commerce-raiding missions and patrols, and conveyed messages and dignitaries. Usually, frigates would fight in small numbers or singly against other frigates. They would avoid contact with ships-of-the-line; even in the midst of a fleet engagement it was bad etiquette for a ship of the line to fire on an enemy frigate which had not fired first. Frigates were involved in fleet battles, often as "repeating frigates". In

17930-539: The frigate was an austere and weatherly vessel suitable for mass-construction and fitted with the latest innovations in anti-submarine warfare. As the frigate was intended purely for convoy duties, and not to deploy with the fleet, it had limited range and speed. It was not until the Royal Navy's Bay class of 1944 that a British design classified as a "frigate" was produced for fleet use, although it still suffered from limited speed. These anti-aircraft frigates, built on incomplete Loch-class frigate hulls, were similar to

18093-402: The gunpowder charge as a long gun firing the same cannonball. The reduced charge allowed carronades to have a shorter length and much lighter weight than long guns. Increasing the size of the bore and ball reduces the required length of barrel. The force acting on the ball is proportional to the square of the diameter, while the mass of the ball rises by the cube, so acceleration is slower; thus,

18256-429: The guns of a ship. Lord Sandwich eventually started mounting them in place of the light guns on the forecastle and quarterdeck of ships. They soon proved their effectiveness in battle. French gun foundries were unable to produce equivalents for twenty years, so carronades gave British warships a significant tactical advantage during the latter part of the 18th century—though French ships mounted another type of weapon in

18419-402: The helicopter is equipped with sensors such as sonobuoys , wire-mounted dipping sonar and magnetic anomaly detectors to identify possible threats, and torpedoes or depth-charges to attack them. With their onboard radar helicopters can also be used to reconnoitre over-the-horizon targets and, if equipped with anti-ship missiles such as Penguin or Sea Skua , to attack them. The helicopter

18582-430: The inventor of barrel rifling is not yet definitely known. Straight grooving had been applied to small arms since at least 1480, originally intended as "soot grooves" to collect gunpowder residue . Some of the earliest recorded European attempts of spiral-grooved musket barrels were of Gaspard Kollner , a gunsmith of Vienna in 1498 and Augustus Kotter of Nuremberg in 1520. Some scholars allege that Kollner's works at

18745-410: The largest of which were two-decker "great frigates" of the third rate . Carrying 60 guns, these vessels were as big and capable as "great ships" of the time; however, most other frigates at the time were used as " cruisers ": independent fast ships. The term "frigate" implied a long hull -design, which relates directly to speed (see hull speed ) and which also, in turn, helped the development of

18908-479: The late 18th century, a new type of cannon was developed in Britain which was a cross between a cannon and a carronade, called a "cannonade" (not to be confused with the term cannonade which refers to rapid and sustained artillery fire or the act of firing as such). An example was the "medium 18 pounder ", which was shorter and lighter than a gun, yet longer than a carronade. While seemingly a good idea in theory, it

19071-544: The like—to give them firepower for boat actions. For instance, each of the 42 larger British vessels at the Battle of Lake Borgne carried a carronade in its bow; only the three gigs were unarmed. At the other end, even a quite small vessel might carry the 68-pounders. For instance, Commander William Layman of the Cruizer -class brig sloop HMS  Raven replaced her two forward 6-pounder guns and 32-pounder carronades with

19234-450: The line and clear from the smoke and disorder of battle, could be more easily seen by the other ships of the fleet. If damage or loss of masts prevented the flagship from making clear conventional signals, the repeating frigates could interpret them and hoist their own in the correct manner, passing on the commander's instructions clearly. For officers in the Royal Navy, a frigate was a desirable posting. Frigates often saw action, which meant

19397-407: The line, and after a series of losses at the outbreak of the War of 1812 , Royal Navy fighting instructions ordered British frigates (usually rated at 38 guns or less) to never engage the large American frigates at any less than a 2:1 advantage. USS  Constitution , preserved as a museum ship by the US Navy, is the oldest commissioned warship afloat, and is a surviving example of a frigate from

19560-499: The new German frigates exceed the former class of destroyers. The future German F125-class frigates are the largest class of frigates worldwide with a displacement of more than 7,200 tons. The same was done in the Spanish Navy , which went ahead with the deployment of the first Aegis frigates, the Álvaro de Bazán -class frigates. The Myanmar Navy is producing modern frigates with a reduced radar cross section known as

19723-528: The power of the "smashers", as they were called, was acknowledged, most captains continued to prefer long guns. A carronade was much shorter and a third to a quarter of the weight of an equivalent long gun . A 32-pounder carronade, for example, weighed less than a ton, but a 32-pounder long gun weighed over 3 tons. Carronades were manufactured in the usual naval gun sizes: 6-, 12-, 18-, 24-, 32-, 42-, and 68- pounder versions are known. The smaller carronades served in three roles. First, they often constituted

19886-411: The projectile requires a significant amount of force, and in some firearms there is a significant amount of freebore, which helps keep chamber pressures low by allowing the propellant gases to expand before being required to engrave the projectile. Minimizing freebore improves accuracy by decreasing the chance that a projectile will distort before entering the rifling. When the projectile is swaged into

20049-407: The projectile to engage the rifling. In breech-loading firearms , the task of seating the projectile into the rifling is handled by the throat of the chamber . Next is the freebore , which is the portion of the throat down which the projectile travels before the rifling starts. The last section of the throat is the throat angle , where the throat transitions into the rifled barrel. The throat

20212-723: The prospect of these powerful heavy frigates, responded by rasée-ing three of their smaller 64-gun battleships, including Indefatigable , which went on to have a very successful career as a frigate. At this time the British also built a few 24-pounder-armed large frigates, the most successful of which was HMS  Endymion (1,277 tons). In 1797, three of the United States Navy 's first six major ships were rated as 44-gun frigates, which operationally carried fifty-six to sixty 24-pounder long guns and 32-pounder or 42-pounder carronades on two decks; they were exceptionally powerful. These ships were so large, at around 1,500 tons, and well-armed that they were often regarded as equal to ships of

20375-422: The quarterdeck and forecastle). This move may reflect the naval conditions at the time, with both France and Spain as enemies the usual British preponderance in ship numbers was no longer the case and there was pressure on the British to produce cruisers of individually greater force. In reply, the first French 18-pounder frigates were laid down in 1781. The 18-pounder frigate eventually became the standard frigate of

20538-441: The quarterdeck and forecastle. 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. A total of fifty-nine French sailing frigates were built between 1777 and 1790, with

20701-500: The range of his long guns. In the 1810s and 1820s, tactics started to place a greater emphasis on the accuracy of long-range gunfire, and less on the weight of a broadside. Indeed, Captain David Porter of USS Essex complained when the navy replaced his 12-pounder long guns with 32-pounder carronades. In the 1840s, the Royal Navy leased several carronade-armed clippers from Jardine, Matheson & Co. in 1840 to supplement

20864-399: The reduced windage, carronades had a much shorter range than the equivalent long gun, typically a third to a half, because they used a much smaller propellant charge (the chamber for the powder was smaller than the bore for the ball). Typical naval tactics in the late 18th century, however, emphasised short-range broadsides, so the range was not thought to be a problem. The air resistance of

21027-487: The required depth was obtained. The process was finished off by casting a slug of molten lead into the barrel, withdrawing it and using it with a paste of emery and oil to smooth the bore. Most rifling is created by either: The grooves are the spaces that are cut out, and the resulting ridges are called lands . These lands and grooves can vary in number, depth, shape, direction of twist (right or left), and twist rate. The spin imparted by rifling significantly improves

21190-413: The resistance of increasing rotational momentum. Freebore may allow more effective use of propellants by reducing the initial pressure peak during the minimum volume phase of internal ballistics before the bullet starts moving down the barrel. Barrels with freebore length exceeding the rifled length have been known by a variety of trade names including paradox . An early method of introducing rifling to

21353-529: The rifled barrel. This method does not give an easy or straightforward understanding of whether a twist rate is relatively slow or fast when bores of different diameters are compared. The second method describes the 'rifled travel' required to complete one full projectile revolution in calibers or bore diameters: twist = L D bore , {\displaystyle {\text{twist}}={\frac {L}{D_{\text{bore}}}},} where twist {\displaystyle {\text{twist}}}

21516-512: The rifling, it takes on a mirror image of the rifling, as the lands push into the projectile in a process called engraving . Engraving takes on not only the major features of the bore, such as the lands and grooves, but also minor features, like scratches and tool marks. The relationship between the bore characteristics and the engraving on the projectile are often used in forensic ballistics . The grooves most commonly used in modern rifling have fairly sharp edges. More recently, polygonal rifling ,

21679-472: The same as used for the M16 rifle. Rifles, which generally fire longer, smaller diameter bullets, will in general have higher twist rates than handguns, which fire shorter, larger diameter bullets. There are three methods in use to describe the twist rate: The, traditionally speaking, most common method expresses the twist rate in terms of the 'travel' (length) required to complete one full projectile revolution in

21842-515: The same role, the obusier de vaisseau . HMS  Victory used the two 68-pounder carronades which she carried on her forecastle to great effect at the Battle of Trafalgar , clearing the gun deck of the Bucentaure by firing a round shot and a keg of 500 musket balls through the Bucentaure ' s stern windows. The carronade was initially very successful and widely adopted, and

22005-486: The same strategic role. The phrase "armoured frigate" remained in use for some time to denote a sail-equipped, broadside-firing type of ironclad. The first such ship was the revolutionary Marine Nationale wooden-hulled Gloire , protected by 12 cm-thick (4.7 in) armour plates. The British response was HMS  Warrior of the Warrior-class ironclads, launched in 1860. With her iron hull, steam engines propelling

22168-446: The second quarter of the 18th century. The French-built Médée of 1740 is often regarded as the first example of this type. These ships were square-rigged and carried all their main guns on a single continuous upper deck. The lower deck, known as the "gun deck", now carried no armament, and functioned as a "berth deck" where the crew lived, and was in fact placed below the waterline of the new frigates. The typical earlier cruiser had

22331-523: The shallow waters around the Netherlands, and the ability to carry sufficient supplies to maintain a blockade. The third task required heavy armament, sufficient to stand up to the Spanish fleet. The first of the larger battle-capable frigates were built around 1600 at Hoorn in Holland . By the later stages of the Eighty Years' War the Dutch had switched entirely from the heavier ships still used by

22494-405: The sides of the barrel when fired and the final destination after leaving the muzzle was less predictable. This was countered when accuracy was more important, for example when hunting, by using a tighter-fitting combination of a closer-to-bore-sized ball and a patch. The accuracy was improved, but still not reliable for precision shooting over long distances. Like the invention of gunpowder itself,

22657-492: The smaller "frigates are thus usually used as escort vessels to protect sea lines of communication or as an auxiliary component of a strike group". The largest and powerful destroyers are often classified as cruisers, such as the Ticonderoga -class cruisers , due to their extra armament and facilities to serve as fleet flagships. The Royal Navy Type 61 ( Salisbury class) were "air direction" frigates equipped to track aircraft. To this end they had reduced armament compared to

22820-432: The smoke and confusion of battle, signals made by the fleet commander, whose flagship might be in the thick of the fighting, might be missed by the other ships of the fleet. Frigates were therefore stationed to windward or leeward of the main line of battle , and had to maintain a clear line of sight to the commander's flagship. Signals from the flagship were then repeated by the frigates, which themselves standing out of

22983-404: The stability of the projectile, improving both range and accuracy. Typically rifling is a constant rate down the barrel, usually measured by the length of travel required to produce a single turn. Occasionally firearms are encountered with a gain twist , where the rate of spin increases from chamber to muzzle. While intentional gain twists are rare, due to manufacturing variance, a slight gain twist

23146-532: The steamships it used against Qing dynasty China during the First Opium War . The carronade disappeared from the Royal Navy in the 1850s, after improved methods for building cannons had been developed by William George Armstrong and Joseph Whitworth . Carronades were nevertheless still used in the American Civil War in the 1860s. The last known use of a carronade in conflict was during

23309-474: The success of the American 44s in three ways. They built a class of conventional 40-gun, 24-pounder armed frigates on the lines of Endymion . They cut down three old 74-gun Ships-of-the-Line into rasées , producing frigates with a 32-pounder main armament, supplemented by 42-pounder carronades. These had an armament that far exceeded the power of the American ships. Finally, Leander and Newcastle , 1,500-ton spar-decked frigates (with an enclosed waist, giving

23472-400: The term (as a verb) for creating such grooves. Rifling is measured in twist rate , the distance the rifling takes to complete one full revolution, expressed as a ratio with 1 as its base (e.g., 1:10 inches (25.4 cm)). A shorter distance/lower ratio indicates a faster twist, generating a higher spin rate (and greater projectile stability). The combination of length, weight, and shape of

23635-480: The term for ships that would formerly have been called destroyers, as well as for frigates. The rank " frigate captain " derives from the name of this type of ship. The term "frigate" (Italian: fregata ; Dutch: fregat ; Spanish/Catalan/Portuguese/Sicilian: fragata ; French: frégate ) originated in the Mediterranean in the late 15th century, referring to a lighter galley -type warship with oars, sails and

23798-420: The throat, which typically wears out much faster than other parts of the barrel. Gain-twist rifling was used prior to and during the American Civil War (1861–65). Colt Army and Navy revolvers both employed gain-twist rifling. Gain-twist rifling, however, is more difficult to produce than uniform rifling, and therefore is more expensive. The military has used gain-twist rifling in a variety of weapons such as

23961-572: The traditional sailing frigate were built with steam engines and screw propellers . These " screw frigates ", built first of wood and later of iron , continued to perform the traditional role of the frigate until late in the 19th century. From 1859, armour was added to ships based on existing frigate and ship of the line designs. The additional weight of the armour on these first ironclad warships meant that they could have only one gun deck, and they were technically frigates, even though they were more powerful than existing ships-of-the-line and occupied

24124-449: The twist rate from breech to muzzle is called a gain or progressive twist; a rate which decreases down the length of a barrel is undesirable because it cannot reliably stabilize the projectile as it travels down the bore. An extremely long projectile, such as a flechette , requires impractically high twist rates to stabilize; it is often stabilized aerodynamically instead. An aerodynamically stabilized projectile can be fired from

24287-444: The type to their own needs, setting the standard for other frigates as the leading naval power. The first British frigates carried 28 guns including an upper deck battery of twenty-four 9-pounder guns (the remaining four smaller guns were carried on the quarterdeck ) but soon developed into fifth-rate ships of 32 or 36 guns including an upper deck battery of twenty-six 12-pounder guns, with the remaining six or ten smaller guns carried on

24450-505: The upper deck). In 1778 the Carron Iron Company of Scotland produced a naval gun which would revolutionise the armament of smaller naval vessels, including the frigate. The carronade was a large calibre, short-barrelled naval cannon which was light, quick to reload and needed a smaller crew than a conventional long gun. Due to its lightness it could be mounted on the forecastle and quarterdeck of frigates. It greatly increased

24613-478: The war, as were the remaining 24 smaller Castle-class corvettes. The frigate was introduced to remedy some of the shortcomings inherent in the Flower-class corvette design: limited armament, a hull form not suited to open-ocean work, a single shaft which limited speed and maneuverability, and a lack of range. The frigate was designed and built to the same mercantile construction standards ( scantlings ) as

24776-591: The weapon in succeeding decades. The typical heavy frigate had a main armament of 18-pounder long guns, plus 32-pounder carronades mounted on its upper decks. The first 'super-heavy frigates', armed with 24-pounder long guns, were built by the naval architect F H Chapman for the Swedish navy in 1782. Because of a shortage of ships-of-the-line, the Swedes wanted these frigates, the Bellona class, to be able to stand in

24939-441: The weight of the gun or the gunpowder charge. Carronades were short range because of their small gunpowder charge but their lower muzzle velocity required a higher trajectory. But at sea the range of the long gun had little use; guns were on moving platforms, making timing of fire very difficult. Pitch and roll meant that most ships fought at close range of a few hundred yards or less. In battles between warships, carronades could be at

25102-539: The windage, the gap between the bore of the gun and the diameter of the ball. The smaller gunpowder charge reduced the barrel heating in action, and reduced the recoil. The mounting, attached to the side of the ship on a pivot, took the recoil on a slider, without altering the alignment of the gun. The pamphlet advocated the use of woollen cartridges, which eliminated the need for wadding and worming , although they were more expensive. Simplifying gunnery for comparatively untrained merchant seamen in both aiming and reloading

25265-434: Was 150, which yields a twist rate in inches per turn, when given the diameter D {\displaystyle D} and the length L {\displaystyle L} of the bullet in inches. This works to velocities of about 840 m/s (2800 ft/s); above those velocities, a C {\displaystyle C} of 180 should be used. For instance, with a velocity of 600 m/s (2000 ft/s),

25428-482: Was 3 ft 3 in (1.0 m) and weighed 10.5 cwt (1,176 lb (533.4 kg)). James's figures show the EIC's 12-pounder carronades were 3 ft 3 in (1.0 m) long, and weighed 8.5 cwt (952 lb (431.8 kg)); the Royal Navy's 12-pounder carronade was 2 ft 8 in (0.8 m) and weighed 6.5 cwt (728 lb (330.2 kg)). There was usually a considerable gap (known as windage ) between

25591-462: Was a popular armament among Anglo-American opium traffickers. Its light weight meant that opium traffickers could maintain both speed and asymmetrical force projection in Asia. The Royal Navy was initially reluctant to adopt the guns, mainly due to mistrust of the Carron Company, which had developed a reputation for incompetence and commercial sharp dealing . Carronades were not even counted in numbering

25754-409: Was already selling a "new light-constructed" gun, two-thirds of the weight of the standard naval gun and charged with one sixth of the weight of ball in powder before it introduced the carronade, which further halved the gunpowder charge. The advantages for merchant ships are described in an advertising pamphlet of 1779. Production of both shot and gun by the same firm immediately allowed a reduction in

25917-483: Was applied loosely to ships varying greatly in design. In the second quarter of the 18th century, what is now generally regarded as the 'true frigate' was developed in France. This type of vessel was characterised by possessing only one armed deck, with an unarmed deck below it used for berthing the crew. Late in the 19th century (British and French prototypes were constructed in 1858), a type of powerful ironclad warships

26080-476: Was developed, and because they had a single gun deck , the term 'frigate' was used to describe them. Later developments in ironclad ships rendered the 'frigate' designation obsolete and the term fell out of favour. During the Second World War , the name 'frigate' was reintroduced to describe a seagoing escort ship that was intermediate in size between a corvette and a destroyer . After World War II,

26243-402: Was found that the gun was less accurate and shorter-ranged than a long cannon, less powerful than a carronade, and -at 28 cwt - too light for the powerful charge, meaning recoil was excessive and often broke the breachings or ropes which attached the gun to the hull timbers. They were quickly removed from service in most cases, although a number were retained on ships in merchant service, such as

26406-400: Was part of the rationale for the gun. The replacement of trunnions by a bolt underneath, to connect the gun to the mounting, reduced the width of the carriage enhancing the wide angle of fire. A merchant ship would almost always be running away from an enemy, so a wide angle of fire was much more important than on a warship. A carronade weighed a quarter as much and used a quarter to a third of

26569-514: Was readopted during the Second World War by the British Royal Navy to describe an anti-submarine escort vessel that was larger than a corvette (based on a mercantile design), while smaller than a destroyer . The vessels were originally to be termed "twin screw corvettes" until the Royal Canadian Navy suggested to the British re-introducing the term "frigate" for the significantly enlarged vessels. Equal in size and capability to

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