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Post by oldpop2000 on May 29, 2020 7:34:13 GMT -6
The Flower class corvette was based on a 700 ton whale boat design by Smiths Dock company but were armed and modified. It was just the hull design that was used and later modified. The hull was not suited to open ocean and caused many issues plus the single shaft limited speed and its ability to maneuver.
The Frigates were an attempt to overcome those problems. They were built to merchant ship construction standards but were larger hulls with more shafts and more maneuverability.
Sloops were larger ships powered by turbines, not triple expansion engines. They were better armed but slower than destroyers with a longer range.
Still, they were all corvette type ships, with the same functionality. ASW, coastal patrol, trade protection of convoys, minesweeping etc. Different hulls, same job. Nothing really different.
Along those same lines, we built escort carriers that were termed "Woolworth carrier by the Royal Navy. Some were based on liners, some on Colliers, merchant ships, Oilers but they still performed the same mission as light carriers and such. It wasn't the hull it was the purpose.
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Post by nobody on May 29, 2020 7:59:30 GMT -6
Actually, those are just different names for the same ship with the same missions. ASW, coastal patrol, trade protection, mine sweeping, etc. All the same but different names. Sort of, but sort of not. The difference is in the construction. Corvettes are converted civilian small ship designs (e.g. trawlers) with a single propeller Frigates were designation the British Navy resurrected to call larger, twin-propeller Corvette designs, then later applied to all smaller craft. A Sloop, however, is a full-up warship with redundancy, compartmentalisation etc. I believe that there are no classifications that changed more over time and location than those. For me a frigate is large small general purpose warship while a corvette is either smaller or more specialized than that. And I don't expect either of those to have any significant armor. A sloop/gunboat on the other hand can be larger or smaller those and can be armored, but I don't expect them to carry asw or other specialized equipment. However that is just what I think of when I hear those names, not definitions of any kind.
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Post by oldpop2000 on May 29, 2020 8:31:34 GMT -6
Sort of, but sort of not. The difference is in the construction. Corvettes are converted civilian small ship designs (e.g. trawlers) with a single propeller Frigates were designation the British Navy resurrected to call larger, twin-propeller Corvette designs, then later applied to all smaller craft. A Sloop, however, is a full-up warship with redundancy, compartmentalisation etc. I believe that there are no classifications that changed more over time and location than those. For me a frigate is large small general purpose warship while a corvette is either smaller or more specialized than that. And I don't expect either of those to have any significant armor. A sloop/gunboat on the other hand can be larger or smaller those and can be armored, but I don't expect them to carry asw or other specialized equipment. However that is just what I think of when I hear those names, not definitions of any kind. I understand and sometimes names are applied by navies to deceive the enemy of the ships capability. The British in the 1930's were having economic problems and their navy suffered. As the chance of war came closer, the British realized they were going to need minelayers, minesweeper, coastal patrol, convoy escorts etc. They also realized that their shipbuilding had also taken hits during the time period. This was the reason for the exchange of Bermuda and 50 overage destroyers, the old four stackers. They also knew what they needed in terms of those missions I mentioned so they put out feelers to commercial ship builders and whale boats were perfect solutions initially, because of their high bows and sterns which made them good along the coast. These ships allowed the \British time until they got their naval shipbuilding up to war time production. Much of their warship production had moved to the Clyde due to the fact that the area along the Thames had become crowded and the current ship builders could no longer expand their yards. This is why they went toward commercial hulls. We essentially did the same thing with escort carriers since we had an overabundance of merchant ships and commercial tankers.
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