Nonetheless, the ship was quite seaworthy and maneuverable, but living conditions for ocean voyages were challenging. This was a particular problem given the faster German U-boat designs then emerging. It was shorter than ideal for oceangoing convoy escort work, too lightly armed for antiaircraft defense, and the ships were barely faster than the merchantmen they escorted. The Flower-class corvette was originally designed for offshore patrol work, and was not ideal when pressed into service as an antisubmarine escort. (Royal Navy ship were named after flowers, and ships in Royal Canadian Navy service took the name of smaller Canadian cities and towns.) Their chief duty was to protect convoys throughout the Battle of the Atlantic and on the routes from the UK to Murmansk carrying supplies to the Soviet Union. This idea was dropped, and the term applied to small, mass-produced antisubmarine escorts such as the Flower class of World War II. Over time, vessels of increasing size and capability were called "corvettes" by 1800, they reached lengths of over 100 ft (30 m) and measured from 400 to 600 tons burthen. They carried four to eight smaller guns on single decks. Most corvettes and sloops of the 17th century were 40 to 60 ft (12 to 18 m) in length and measured 40 to 70 tons burthen. The last vessel lost by France during the American Revolutionary War was the corvette Le Dragon, scuttled by her captain to avoid capture off Monte Cristi, Haïti in January 1783. The British Navy did not adopt the term until the 1830s, long after the Napoleonic Wars, to describe a small sixth-rate vessel somewhat larger than a sloop. The French Navy's corvettes grew over the decades and by the 1780s they were ships of 20 guns or so, approximately equivalent to the British Navy's post ships. The first reference to a corvette was with the French Navy in the 1670s, which may be where the term originated. The English Navy began using small ships in the 1650s, but described them as sloops rather than corvettes. The role of the corvette consisted mostly of coastal patrol, fighting minor wars, supporting large fleets, or participating in show-the-flag missions. They were very closely related to sloops-of-war. The rank is the most junior of three "captain" ranks in several European (e.g., France, Spain, Italy, Croatia) and South American (e.g., Argentina, Chile, Brazil) navies, because a corvette, as the smallest class of rated warship, was traditionally the smallest class of vessel entitled to a commander of a "captain" rank.Ī corvette in the Trianon model collection.ĭuring the Age of Sail, corvettes were one of many types of warships smaller than a frigate and with a single deck of guns. The rank " corvette captain", equivalent in many navies to " lieutenant commander", derives from the name of this type of ship. The word "corvette" is first found in Middle French, a diminutive of the Dutch word corf, meaning a "basket", from the Latin corbis. In modern terms, a corvette is typically between 500 tons and 2,000 tons, although recent designs may approach 3,000 tons, which might instead be considered a small frigate. The modern types of ships below a corvette are coastal patrol craft, missile boat and fast attack craft. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloop-of-war. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or "rated") warship. Anti-Submarine warfare Corvette INS Kamorta of the Indian NavyĪ corvette is a small warship.
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