What is the difference between a frigate,a cruiser ,and a battleship?
Answers:
Size, speed, weapons systems.
size, personnel, armament, capabilities, etc
the mother the daughter and grandmother
size of ship and the type of armoury it carrys
Size.
After the end of the age of sail, the most heavily armed and protected warships were just called "battleships."
Another term for Destroyer Escort. Most European nations, including the British, called their DE's "frigates."
Today, cruisers are primarily guided missile warships, ranging in size from around 7,000 to 10,000 tons.
I could be slightly off in my thoughts but I believe this:
Cruiser- has guns and cruise missiles
Destroyer- has guns and depth charges.
Frigate- more or less is a cargo ship.
Don't put money on that tho.
This is a GREAT simplification of their capabilities. They each can do more than we know. Pops
A battleship is a fully armored ship that has guns that fire shells that are at least 12" diameter and up. A cruiser is a ship that specializes in anti aircraft duties but also has anti-ship and sub weapons as well. This vessel is also used as a escort flagship for task forces. A frigate is a specialized anti-sub ship with some anti-ship and anti aircraft weapons. A destroyer is a jack of all trades usually having an equal capability in anti-air,ship and sub. This capability will be less than the specialized functions of the other classes but that much less. From biggest to smallest you have a battleship,cruiser,destroyer,a. frigate.
That is a very complex question as they all come in a variety of guises but the originators were as follows. There were Frigates (or Frigatines as they were known) in the days of sail, as well as Destroyers and Battleships. The cruiser was a later addition and for a very good reason. The Frigate was lightly Armoured with between 12 and 18 cannon, it made good sail and was fast and very nimble in the water, it was a good interceptor ship. The Destroyer was a good alround ship, specialising in neither speed or armouments but was the mainstay of the British Fleet and that moved us up to the battlship (or Man-O-War) this was a ship with vast sail and over 36 cannon, It was fast and had awsome fire power, but was no good at turning.
In later years, when steam became the mode of propulsion the Navy required something between the Battleship (or Dreadnought (fear nothing)) and the Destroyer and so the Cruiser was invented, the Cruiser was so named because it had great speed for battle but could cruise reasonably economically, It had larger guns than the Destroyer and more of them but like a desroyer it could also carry torpedo launchers. The Battle of the River Plate is a good subject for the ferocity of the cruiser, as the Germans would rather scuttle thier own pocket battleship (the Graffspee see www.grafspee.com/theship.html) than face what the captain thought were a flotilla of Cruisers, despite the fact he had better range in his guns and speed. The status of a cruiser, its speed and capabilities were measured by the number of funnels it would have, a 3 funnel cruiser would be faster than a 2 funnel, obvious really because the 3 funnel would have more boilers etc, the versatillity of the Cruiser knows no bounds, In fact to be precise England has NO aircraft carriers, we have what is in fact called "Through Deck Cruisers", The frigate remains the same fast, nimble craft, the Desroyer is still the workhorse of the Navy and the Battleship is now a thing of the past. Hope this has been of some help.
The answers post by the user, for information only, UKQnA.com does not guarantee the right.