# What is the difference between a frigate, cruiser, destroyer?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-frigate-cruiser-destroyer/424917>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 1, 2007, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-frigate-cruiser-destroyer/424917 "2007-11-01T20:26:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-frigate-cruiser-destroyer/424917/21 "2007-11-02T20:03:42Z")

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IIRC HMS Warrior was classed as a frigate, but in her day she was the most powerful warship afloat.

> **[HMS Warrior (1860)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Warrior_(1860))**
>
> HMS Warrior is a 40-gun steam-powered armoured frigate\[Note 1\] built for the Royal Navy in 1859–1861. She was the name ship of the Warrior-class ironclads. Warrior and her sister ship HMS Black Prince were the first armour-plated, iron-hulled warships, and were built in response to France's launching in 1859 of the first ocean-going ironclad warship, the wooden-hulled Gloire. Warrior conducted a publicity tour of Great Britain in 1863 and spent her active career with the Channel Squadron. Obs...

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-frigate-cruiser-destroyer/424917/22 "2007-11-02T20:38:45Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> IIRC HMS Warrior was classed as a frigate, but in her day she was the most powerful warship afloat.

That’s because she was only the third or fourth ship of her type in the world. There weren’t yet enough ironclads for “ironclad” to be a designation.

And I’m old enough to remember when the 2-hit ship was a destroyer, the second 3-hit ship was a cruiser, and there was no PT boat. I was very confused as a child when a USN destroyer made a stop in Cleveland on a goodwill tour, and it was much larger than the USS Cod (a WWII sub now moored as a museum in Cleveland).

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