Frigate

The frigate is a class of fast, maneuverable sailing warship that emerged in European navies during the seventeenth century and matured into a standardized type through the eighteenth, built smaller and with fewer guns than a ship of the line but valued for speed and versatility rather than raw broadside firepower. Frigates typically carried their main battery of guns on a single continuous deck rather than the multiple stacked gun decks of a ship of the line, and navies used them for scouting ahead of the main battle fleet, escorting merchant convoys, raiding enemy commerce, and carrying dispatches, roles that kept frigates almost constantly at sea while the more valuable ships of the line were often held in reserve for a decisive fleet action. American frigates such as USS Constitution, built to the heavier end of the type's design range, gained particular fame for their performance against Royal Navy frigates during the War of 1812, and the general frigate concept of a smaller, fast, independently operating warship persisted in naval terminology long after the age of sail ended.