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Ships of the Royal Navy

A - B - C - D - E - F - G H - I - J - K - L - M - N O - P - Q - R - S - T - U V - W - X - Y - Z

aircraft carriers

amphibious assault shipping

battlecruisers

battleships

corvettes and sloops

cruisers

destroyers

frigates

mine countermeasure vessels

monitors

patrol and attack craft

Royal Yachts

ships of the line

submarines

support ships

survey vessels

fleet bases

shore establishments

hospitals and hospital ships

air stations

aircraft wings

fleets and major commands

squadrons and flotillas

early English ships  • early Scots ships

This is a list of frigate classes of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom in chronological order.

Contents 1 The Early Sixth Rates before 1750 2 Sail frigates – by class 3 Early steam frigates – by class 4 Modern frigates – by class 5 Sail frigates - alphabeticaly 6 Reference Sources 7 See also

Before the "true" sail frigate come into being in the 1740s, the equivalent was the single-deck cruising vessel of the Sixth Rate, armed with either 20, 22 or 24 guns, which established itself in the 1690s and lasted until the arrival of the new "true" frigates. For half a century the main armament of this type was the 6-pounder gun, until it was replaced by 9-pounder guns just prior to being superseded by the 28-gun Sixth Rate frigate. Two nominally 24-gun ships - the Lyme and Unicorn - were built in 1747-1949 with 24 9-pounders on the upper deck but also carried four smaller guns on the quarter deck; the pair were designated at 24-gun ship (disregarding the smaller guns) until 1956, when they were reclassed as 28-gun frigates. However other 24-gun and 20-gun ships continued to be built, with 22 or 20 9-pounder guns on the upper deck.

Following the success of the Lyme and Unicorn, the mid-century period saw the simultaneous introduction in 1756 both of Sixth Rate frigates of 28 guns (with a main battery of 24 9-pounder guns, plus 4 lesser guns mounted on the quarterdeck and/or forecastle) and of Fifth Rate frigates of 32 or 36 guns (with a main battery of 26 12-pounder guns, plus 6 or 10 lesser guns mounted on the quarterdeck and/or forecastle).

The American Revolution saw the emergence of new Fifth Rates of 36 or 38 guns which carried a main battery of 18-pounder guns, and were thus known as "heavy" frigates, while the French Revolutionary War brought about the introduction of a few 24-pounder gun armed frigates. In the 1830s, new types emerged with a main battery of 32-pounder guns.

9-pounder armed

• Lyme class 28-gun Sixth Rates 1748
• Lowestoff class 28-gun Sixth Rates 1756
• Coventry class 28-gun Sixth Rates 1757
• Mermaid class 28-gun Sixth Rates 1761
• Modified Mermaid class 28-gun Sixth Rates 1773
• Enterprise class 28-gun Sixth Rates 1773

12-pounder armed

• Southampton class 32-gun Fifth Rates 1757
• Richmond class 32-gun Fifth Rates 1757
• Venus class 36-gun Fifth Rates 1757
• Niger class 32-gun Fifth Rates 1758
• Tweed 32-gun Fifth Rate 1759
• Lowestoffe 32-gun Fifth Rate 1761
• Modified Lowestoffe class 32-gun Fifth Rates 1773
• Amazon class 32-gun Fifth Rates 1773
• Active class 32-gun Fifth Rates 1779
• Andromeda class 32-gun Fifth Rates 1782
• Heroine 32-gun Fifth Rate 1783
• Maidstone class 32-gun Fifth Rates 1795
• Triton 32-gun Fifth Rate 1796
• Circe class 32-gun Fifth Rates 1804

18-pounder armed

• Flora class 36-gun Fifth Rates 1780
• Minerva class 38-gun Fifth Rates 1780
• Latona 38-gun Fifth Rate 1781
• Perseverance class 36-gun Fifth Rates 1781
• Melampus 36-gun Fifth Rate 1785
• Beaulieu 40-gun Fifth Rate 1791
• Pallas class 32-gun Fifth Rates 1794
• Artois class 38-gun Fifth Rates 1794
• Alcmene class 32-gun Fifth Rates 1794
• Phoebe class 36-gun Fifth Rates 1795
• Amazon class 36-gun Fifth Rates 1795
• Acasta 40-gun Fifth Rate 1797
• Boadicea 38-gun Fifth Rate 1797
• Sirius 36-gun Fifth Rate 1797
• Hydra 38-gun Fifth Rate 1797
• Amazon class 38-gun Fifth Rates 1799
• Active 38-gun Fifth Rate 1799
• Leda class 38-gun Fifth Rates 1800
• Penelope class 36-gun Fifth Rates 1798
• Lavinia 40-gun Fifth Rate 1806
• Amphion class 32-gun Fifth Rates 1798
• Narcissus class 32-gun Fifth Rates 1801
• Apollo class 36-gun Fifth Rates 1799

24-pounder armed

• 1794 Razees 44 1794
• Endymion class 40-gun Fifth Rate 1797
• Cambrian 40-gun Fifth Rate 1797
• Java 52-gun Fourth Rate 1815
• Isis 58-gun Fourth Rate 1819
• Southampton class 60-gun Fourth Rates 1820
• President 60-gun Fourth Rate 1829

32-pounder armed

• Castor 36-gun Fifth Rate 1832
• Vernon 50-gun Fourth Rate 1832
• Pique class 36-gun Fifth Rates 1834
• Inconstant class 36-gun Fifth Rates 1836
• Thetis 36-gun Fifth Rate 1846
• Raleigh class 50-gun Fourth Rates 1845
• Constance class 50-gun Fourth Rates 1846
• Leander class 50-gun Fourth Rates 1848
• Phaeton 50-gun Fourth Rate 1848
• Indefatigable class 50-gun Fourth Rates 1848
• Nankin 50-gun Fourth Rate 1850

The following three classes were begun as sailing frigates, but all were completed as screw-driven steam frigates.

• Emerald class 50-gun Fourth Rates, ordered 1848.
• San Fiorenzo class 50-gun Fourth Rates, ordered 1848.
• Narcissus class 50-gun Fourth Rates, ordered 1848.

During the 1840s, the introduction of steam propulsion was to radically change the nature of the frigate. Initial trials were with paddle-driven vessels, but these had numerous disadvantages, not least that the paddle wheels restricted the numbers of guns that could be mounted on the broadside. So the application of the screw propellor meant that a full broadside could still be carried, and a number of sail frigates were adapted, while during the 1850s the first frigates designed from the start to have screw propulsion were ordered. It is important to remember that all these early steam vessels still carried a full rig of masts and sails, and that steam power remained a means of assistance to these vessels.

In 1887 all frigates and corvettes in the British Navy were re-categorised as 'cruisers', and the term 'frigate' was abolished, not to re-emerge until the Second World War, at which time it was resurrected to describe a totally different type of escort vessel.

• Cyclops class wooden-hulled paddle frigates 1839 - Second Class, originally classed just as 'Steam Vessels'.
• Sampson wooden-hulled paddle frigate 1844 - Second Class, originally classed just as a 'Steam Vessel'.
• Centaur class wooden-hulled paddle frigates 1845 - Second Class, originally classed just as 'Steam Vessels'.
• Retribution wooden-hulled paddle frigate 1844 - First Class, originally classed just as a 'Steam Vessel'.
• Terrible wooden-hulled paddle frigate 1845 - First Class, originally classed just as a 'Steam Vessel'.
• Avenger wooden-hulled paddle frigate 1845 - First Class.
• Birkenhead iron-hulled paddle frigate 1845 - Second Class.
• Odin wooden-hulled paddle frigate 1846 - First Class.
• Sidon wooden-hulled paddle frigate 1846 - First Class.
• Leopard wooden-hulled paddle frigate 1850 - Second Class.
• Tiger wooden-hulled paddle frigate 1849 - Second Class.
• Magicienne class wooden-hulled paddle frigates 1851 - Second Class.
• Furious class wooden-hulled paddle frigates 1850 - Second Class.
• Amphion wooden-hulled screw frigate 1846 - the prototype screw frigate
• Arrogant wooden-hulled screw frigate 1848 - First Class
• Dauntless class wooden-hulled screw frigates 1847 - Second Class
• Termagant class wooden-hulled screw frigates 1847 - Second Class
• Tribune class wooden-hulled screw frigates 1853 - Second Class
• Forte class wooden-hulled screw frigates 1852
• Liffey class wooden-hulled screw frigates 1856
• Diadem class wooden-hulled screw frigates 1856
• Ariadne class wooden-hulled screw frigates 1859
• Emerald class wooden-hulled screw frigates 1856
• Mersey class wooden-hulled screw frigates 1858
• Narcissus wooden-hulled screw frigate 1859
• Bristol class wooden-hulled screw frigates 1860
• Endymion wooden-hulled screw frigate 1865
• Inconstant iron-hulled screw frigate 1868
• Shah iron-hulled screw frigate 1873
• Raleigh iron-hulled screw frigate 1873

• River class — 138 ships, 1941–1944
• Colony class — 21 ships
• Captain class — 78 ships
• Loch class — 26 ships
• Bay class — 21 ships (redesigned Loch class for anti-aircraft escort)
• Type 15 — 23 ships (full rebuilds of World War II destroyer hulls)
• Type 16 — 10 ships (partial rebuilds of wartime destroyer hulls)
• Type 41 Leopard class — 4 ships
• Type 61 Salisbury class — 4 ships
• Type 12 Whitby class — 6 ships
• Type 12I Rothesay class — 9 ships
• Type 14 Blackwood class — 12 ships
• Type 81 Tribal class — 7 ships
• Type 12M Leander class — 26 ships (subclasses: 8 Batch 1, 8 Batch 2, 10 Batch 3)
• Type 21 Amazon class — 8 ships
• Type 22 — 14 ships (subclasses: Broadsword 4, Boxer 6, Cornwall 4)
• Type 23 Duke class — 16 ships

• Actaeon - sold 1766
• Africaine 38 - captured by France
• Aigle (ex-French Aigle, captured 1782)
• Amphitrite 38 (1816)
• Andromache (1829)
• Arethusa
• Boadicea 38
• Bombay 40 (c.1793) - renamed Ceylon
• Bon-Acquis (ex-French Bon-Acquis, captured 1757)
• Boreas - sold 1770
• Brilliant 36
• Caroline (ex-French Caroline, captured September 1809)
• Constant Warwick 26 (c.1646)
• Cornwallis 56 (c.1800) - renamed Akbar
• Coventry 28 1757
• Danae (ex-French Danae, captured 1759)
• Diamond 32 (1774)
• Diana (1757) - sold 1793
• Endymion 40, Captured USS President.
• Flora 42
• Freya (ex-Danish Freya, captured 25 July 1800)
• Hastings 32 (1824)
• Hebe 40 (ex-French Hebe, captured 1782)
• Hussar - captured by France 1762
• Indefatigable 44 (build 1784 as a 64 gun ship of the line, razed)
• Iphigenia - captured by France
• Java 38, captured by USS Constitution in 1813
• Latona 38
• Laurel 38 (ex-French La Fidèle, captured 16 August 1809 at the surrender of Flushing)
• Lively 38
• Lutine Transferred from French Royal Navy in 1793.
• Lyme
• Macedonian 38, captured by USS United States 1812
• Madagascar 46 (1822)
• Melampe (ex-French Melampe, captured 1758)
• Minerva
• Nereide 38, captured 1797, sold 1816.
• Newcastle 56, War of 1812
• Orpheus 32 (1773)
• Pallas 36 (1757)
• Phaeton
• Pitt 36 (1805)
• Pomone (ex-French Pomone, captured 1794)
• Rainbow 44
• Resistance 44 - sank 24 July 1798
• Saldanha shipwrecked in Lough Swilly, Donegal, 4 December 1811
• Salsette 36 (1807)
• Santa Leocadia 34 (ex-Spanish Santa Leocadia, captured 1781)
• Santa Margarita 34 (ex-Spanish Santa Margarita, captured 1779)
• Shannon - BU 1765
• Shannon (1806, broken up 1859)
• Sirius 36, scuttled during the Mauritius campaign of 1810.
• Southampton 32 (1757)
• Surprise 28, ex-French L'Unite captured 1796, sold out of Service in 1802.
• Thetis
• Trent - sold 1764
• Trincomalee 38 (1817) - preserved afloat at Hartlepool, UK
• HMS Unicorn
• Unicorn 46, preserved in Scotland
• Venus (ex-French Venus, captured 17 September 1809)
• Venus 36

Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates (Conway Maritime, 1992); The Heavy Frigate (Conway Maritime, 1994); Warships of the Napoleonic Era (Chatham Publishing, 1999); Frigates of the Napoleonic Wars (Chatham Publishing, 2000).

Rif Winfield, The Sail and Steam Navy List, 1815-1889 (co-author David Lyon, Chatham Publishing, 2004); British Warships in the Age of Sail: 1793-1817 (Chatham Publishing, 2005); British Warships in the Age of Sail: 1714-1792 (Seaforth Publishing, 2007).

• Type system of the Royal Navy