A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea denial.
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were originally conceived in 1885 by Fernando Villaamil for the Spanish Navy as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these "torpedo boat destroyers" (TBDs) were "large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats". Although the term "destroyer" had been used interchangeably with "TBD" and "torpedo boat destroyer" by navies since 1892, the term "torpedo boat destroyer" had been generally shortened to simply "destroyer" by nearly all navies by the First World War.
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes.
Protected cruisers, a type of cruising warship of the late 19th century, gained their description because an armored deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers notably lacked a belt of armour along the sides, in contrast to armored cruisers which carried both deck and belt armour. Protected cruisers were typically lighter in displacement and mounted fewer and/or lighter guns than armored cruisers. By the early 20th-century, with the advent of increasingly lighter yet stronger armour, even smaller vessels could afford some level of both belt and deck armour. In the place of protected cruisers, armored cruisers would evolve into heavy cruisers and light cruisers, the latter especially taking-up many of roles originally envisaged for that of protected cruisers.
A warship or combatant ship is a ship that is used for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are typically faster and more maneuverable than merchant ships. Unlike a merchant ship, which carries cargo, a warship typically carries only weapons, ammunition and supplies for its crew.
A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship of the British Royal Navy with a single gun deck that carried up to 18 guns. The rating system of the Royal Navy covered all vessels with 20 or more guns; thus, the term encompassed all unrated warships, including gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fire ships were classed by the Royal Navy as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the role of a sloop-of-war when not carrying out their specialised functions.
Steam frigates and the smaller steam corvettes, steam sloops, steam gunboats and steam schooners, were steam-powered warships that were not meant to stand in the line of battle. The first such ships were paddle steamers. Later on the invention of screw propulsion enabled construction of screw-powered versions of the traditional frigates, corvettes, sloops and gunboats.
HMS Defence was a Minotaur-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century, the last armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy. She was stationed in the Mediterranean when the First World War began and participated in the pursuit of the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and light cruiser SMS Breslau. The ship was transferred to the Grand Fleet in January 1915 and remained there for the rest of her career.
A fast attack craft (FAC), also referred to as a Patrol Torpedo Gunboat (PTG) or a Patrol Craft (PCG), is a small, fast, agile, offensive, often affordable warship armed with anti-ship missiles, gun or torpedoes. FACs are usually operated in close proximity to land as they lack both the seakeeping and all-round defensive capabilities to survive in blue water. The size of the vessel also limits the fuel, stores and water supplies. Their displacements are usually under 700 tons, and they can reach speeds of 25+ knots or 46+ kph.
The Kuma-class light cruisers were a class of five light cruisers built for and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). The Kuma-class cruisers proved useful in combat operations ranging from the Aleutian Islands to the Indian Ocean throughout World War II.
HMS Curlew was a C-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was part of the Ceres sub-class of the C class. The ship survived World War I to be sunk by German aircraft during the Norwegian Campaign in 1940.
Nine ships and a base of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Curlew after the bird, the curlew:
HMS Rattlesnake was a unique design of torpedo gunboat of the Royal Navy. A result of the Russian war scare of 1885, she was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby that year and built by Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead. Quickly made obsolete by the new torpedo boat destroyers, she became an experimental submarine target ship in 1906, and was sold in 1910.
A torpedo cruiser is a type of warship that is armed primarily with torpedoes. The major navies began building torpedo cruisers shortly after the invention of the locomotive Whitehead torpedo in the 1860s. The development of the torpedo gave rise to the Jeune École doctrine, which held that small warships armed with torpedoes could effectively and cheaply defeat much larger battleships. Torpedo cruisers fell out of favor in most of the great power navies in the 1890s, though many other navies continued to acquire them into the early 1900s.
The Archer class was a class of eight cruisers of the Royal Navy. They were envisaged from 1883 onwards by Admiral Sir Astley Cooper Key to replace existing sloops as ancillaries for working with the British Fleet and also for trade protection; a total of twenty such ships were planned by him, but only eight were built. Six ships were ordered under the 1884 Programme and built by J & G Thomson at Clydebank in Glasgow. A further two ships were ordered under the 1885 Programme, and these were built at the Devonport Dockyard with all ships completed between 1887 and 1888. These ships mainly served in the British Empire's foreign fleets being on various stations throughout the north Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Throughout their careers they were involved in a number of local conflicts including the Anglo-Zanzibar War, First Sino-Japanese War, and the Boxer Rebellion.
This glossary defines the various types of ships and accessory watercraft that have been used in service of the United States. Such service is mainly defined as military vessels used in the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard, as well as the defunct, incorporated, or renamed institutions such as the United States Revenue Cutter Service. Service of the United States can also be defined in this context as special government missions in the form of expeditions, such as the Wilkes Expedition or the North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition. The scope of the glossary encompasses both the "Old Navy" of the United States, from its beginnings as the "Continental Navy", through the "New Navy" and up to modern day. The watercraft included in the glossary are derived from United States ships with logbooks published by the National Archives and Records Administration.
The Barracouta-class cruiser was a series of 4 third-class cruisers operated by the Royal Navy between 1890 and 1905. The ships were the first British cruisers to incorporate a number of features, such as an armored deck and quick-firing guns, as those designs were copied from other vessels. Two more vessels were built based on a lengthened version of the class. The ships mainly operated in the Mediterranean and British home waters before the entire class was scrapped.
The Barham-class cruiser was a series of two third-class cruisers operated by the Royal Navy between 1890 and 1914. Designed as a high-speed variant of the Barracouta-class cruiser for service in the Mediterranean and British waters, flaws in their boiler design led to frequent breakdowns and the abandonment of their original purpose. Instead, the two ships were reclassified as dispatch vessels and were eventually broken up after two decades of service.
Royal Navy