Ship classifications are sooooo fricking annoying I have no idea what is a medium cruiser, battlecruiser, light corvette or something. What's a good way to learn them?
Ship classifications are sooooo fricking annoying I have no idea what is a medium cruiser, battlecruiser, light corvette or something.
It's by country.
And by era.
I.e. ww1 everyone follows the British system.
Ww2 people use a mix of the British french and their own.
Just understand the basics of small to big.
Small:frigite, corvette, escort destroyer, and then destroyer.
Medium:destroyers(depends on country again) light cruisers, some heavy cruisers (depends on country)
Heavy: heavy cruisers, battle cruisers, battleships, dreadnaughts.
> battleships, dreadnaughts.
WRONG b***h
Ship classifications are a bit of a meme, each navy has their own system and it shifts over time.
Look at classes of ship as individuals with particular characteristics rather than trying to lump them into categories that don't make sense and don't have fixed definitions.
Fine, I'll take the bait
>Battleship
The largest, most heavily armed and armored gun-armed warships available at any given time
>Dreadnought
Any battleship whose main battlery is formed by a large uniform battery of guns. named after HMS dreadnought
>Pre dreadnough
smaller, earlier battleships with non-uniform main battery
>Super Dreadnought
Same as above but with bigger guns. (ypically above 13 inches)
>Battlecruiser
Ship that is faster than a contemporary battleship, at the cost of either armor or armament
>Fast battleship
Ship that is faster than a regular battleship but with no particular sacrifice
>Treaty battleship
Battleship whose charachteristics were defined by the1921 Washington naval treaty. Were supposed to displace no more than 35 000 tons have guns no bigger than 16 inch.
>Super Battleship
unofficial term used for big ass ships like the Yamato plus some never built designs
continues
>cruiser
medium sized ship supposed to be able to operate far from the homeland
>Armored cruiser
oldish type of ship from the late 1800, had an armored deck and a belt armor
>Protected cruiser
no belt armor, Armored deck only
>unprotected cruiser
No armor at all, became obsolete quickly
>heavy cruiser
Class of ships defined by the washington naval treaty. had displacement up to 10000 tons and guns up to 8 inch. later the same term was also used for ships that didn't comply to these specs
>Light cruiser
Defined by the London naval treaty. same displacement as heavy cruisers, guns only up to 6 inch
>scout cruisers
Catch-all term for small fast ships used for scouting (duh)
>pocket battleship
Term only used for one class of ships, the german Deutshland class. were essentially heavy cruisers with oversized guns
>Large cruiser
term only used for one class of ships, the American Alaska class. Were big enough that some call them battlecruisers.
>missile cruiser
Big modern ship with missiles
>helicopter cruiser
Big modern ship with helicopters
>aircraft cruisers
I think you can figure this one out
continue
>Destroyer
Originally called "torpedo boat destroyers", small ships armed with torpedos and light guns
>Torpedo boats
Smaller ship with torpedo, often not fully ocean-capable
>Motor torpedo boat
basically a speedboat with torpedos
>Destroyer leader
Bigger destroyers, used to lead flotillas of destroyers
>Large destroyers
Pretty much the same thing
>destroyer escort
Smaller than regular destroyers and not as fast. used for escort missions during ww2
>missile destroyers
Destroyers with missiles. Due to scale creep and evolving therminology they have become the biggest ship type bar carriers for most navies
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>Frigate
Ship smaller than a destroyer
>corvette
Ship smaller than a frigate
>Aircraft carrier
Big ship with planes
>Helicopter carrier
Smaller ship with helicopters
>light carrier
Smaller ship with planes
>escort carrier
Carrier made from a civilian ship, or at least to civilan ship standard. usually slow. meant for escorting convoys in ww2
>CVA
Assault carrier. meant to support landing forces
>LDH
Landing helicopter dock. A carrier with a floodable dock to actually transport amphibious troops.
>Landing ship
Same as above minus the carrier part.
>supercarrier
Unofficial term for very big carrier. Traditionally only used for US carriers, even if it was first used for the british Ark Royal
That's it, I'm done
>Fast battleship
actually there were two kinds of fast battleship, WW1 era, like the Queen Elizabeth and from WW2 like the Iowas
What about avisos?
> What's a good way to learn them?
Git gud.
And when in doubt, just call it a frigate. Works for ze germans
Like others in this thread have pointed out, each navy have their own classification.
Basic rule of thumb is that a ship is what the navy decides to call it. So you can have ship that is as large as a frigate, but is still called a destroyer because it has been chosen for some specific duty usually helf by destroyers. Or a or a corvette that is as big a s a destroyer, but still called a corvette because it's meant for coastal patrolling only. It gets very confusing very quicly.
Some general suggestions still apply.
>Corvette is usually the smallest "actual warship". That is, anything bigger than a patrol boat.. Used for coastal patrolling and maybe fleet escorts.
>Destroyer is usually larger than a corvette but smaller than a frigate, and mainly meant for fighting other warships. Speed and firepower emphasized above all else.
>Frigate is the medium sized ship that is big enough that it can be sent off for for solo missions for longer times. Kinda the first "independently operating vessel". They are the sort of jack of all trades.
>Cruisers are the big boys, and come in huge variety. These have room to strech your elbows and some niceties to them.
>Battleships are the biggest behemoths (aside from aircraft carriers). These have gone out of style since they are really expensive to make and have been kinda obsolete since we figured out how to make accurate and reliable torpedoes.
Again, your mileage may vary. In some circles, destroyers are seen as bigger than frigates. It all depends on the navy in question.
>Destroyer is usually larger than a corvette but smaller than a frigate, and mainly meant for fighting other warships
Not quite
In WW2, a destroyer was a small but powerful escort for the main battle fleet designed to scout, kill enemy destroyers, and launch torpedo attacks
By late war Allied destroyers evolved into antiair and antisubmarine fleet escorts, but mainly antiair
Hence during the mid/late Cold War NATO decided that destroyers should be antiair-focused escorts, and frigates should refer to anti-submarine and general purpose escorts
The US Navy attempted to make "frigate" the designation for cruiser-sized warships bigger than destroyers, but gave up and complied with the above NATO standards in the cruiser redesignation exercise of the 70s
Like said, your mileage may vary and some navies have their own traditions.
Like the new Finnish Pohjanmaa-class.
They SAY it is a corvette, so it is considered a corvette. Despite the fact that it is 117 meters long, 16 meters wide and 4,300 tons in displacement, putting it at the same page as British Darling Class destroyers, American Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates and French LaFayette class frigates ...and just a hairs lenght below British Type Type 23 Frigates.
But since Finns say it's a corvette, then it is one. That's just how warship classification goes. All wonky as shit.
The Finnish explanation is that it is heavier because it was designed for Arctic patrol, and its armament is more akin to a corvette
>putting it at the same page as British Daring Class destroyers
that would be the postwar Daring-class destroyers which have a full load displacement of about 3,900 tons, not the Type 45 which is more than double that
the WW1 Arethusa class cruiser was also about that weight, so can you argue also that the Pohjanmaas are light cruisers?
actually, HMS Victory is also about that weight, and she is a battleship, so...
Weight alone doesn't work as a measure without accounting for other factors.
Can we just call it "Hyper Dimensional Hermaphrodite Battle Sloop Deathperkele"?
I still don't know the differnce between a sloop, frigate, corvette, or brig.
its mostly the rigging and that shit was autistic as frick
This.
It was all about "how many masts, and in what order and how many sails and what kind of sails they are using in which order."
You might have practically identical hull on a ship, but since it had slightly different way of rigging the sails on the masts, it was considered a different type of ship.
Mostly it conveyed info about how much crew the ship needed to work all those sails, and thus how fast it could be expected to change course and what kind of speed you could expect. The tonnage might stay the same, but since one type was considered "a bit more pain in the ass to manage, but also faster at sea" they were seen as different types of ships.
>Hermaphrodite Brig
That’s pretty gay ngl
Half of those sound like fake sex acts made up as part of a joke.
>she's a freak, i heard she asks dudes to hit her with the sliding gunter on the first date.
I’ll give you fifty bucks to give me an Indian sampan.
She Sloop on my Lugger till I Bark
whats the best top speed for a ship? as fast as possible?
Fuel-efficient cruising speed is usually what they are looking for. Of course it would be nice if it was swift, but these days warships don't really have to move in flanking speeds in battle. If a battle is on, it's the missiles that do the speedy manouvers.
Shitty jet ski can go 40 mph, more expensive ones can go nearly 70 mph, shitty ones can have their engine control overriden to run at nearly 70 mph.
From a stationary position, unless you're nuclear, then you probably aren't going to move out of the way in time if you're a mile from the coast.
So based on how big your ship is (LWL), your current course/speed, and how close you are to the shoreline/launch, the needed detection time and distance can be calculated to outmaneuver or destroy the jetski.
How about some modern German 10k ton """""""""frigates"""""""""""
Accept that all classification schemes are arbitrary and move on. This is just your herb, nut, and berry hoarding mammal brain fricking with you.
Anon, ship classifications aren't real. They are merely relevant for use classification and as a charade for politics and industry. Like the british "large light cruisers" of WW1 which Fisher merely classified as such because the government blocked the building of any ship classes larger than that.
Play Kantai Collection.
Stop. The ship class and individual fitting is what the ship is. Other than that see the fleets and squadrons they sailed in.
Also peace time has many ships patrol solo when they might not if fighting a war.
WW2 saw the end of actual cruiser operations
The smart play is to just call them all "Large Surface Combatants"