Ship Designations

[email removed] (David Johnson) wrote:

>Finally, I've got a question for all you *TCS* cult members.  Is there any
>clear way to identify ship types or classes based upon tonnages?  In other
>words, is there some breakdown like:
>
>Battles          100,000+
>Cruisers         40,000 - 100,000
>Destroyers       5000 - 40,000
>Etc.?
>(Please don't take issue with my numbers.  I don't have a clue what the
>actual values out to be.)
>
>What about types/classes themselves?  Is there some finer breakdown than
>battles, cruisers, carriers, escorts, etc.?  Is there a way to tell a
>frigate from a destroyer, etc. (besides what the designer choose to call it)?

I am hardly a TLC cultist, but I do have an answer for that one: NO.

The current nomenclature game into being between the introduction of steam and
the turn of the century, and it was intended as a set of functional designations

Battleships were the "ships of force" able to stand up to other battleships.

Cruisers were light ships with long legs, able to serve as the "eyes" of a
battle force, or take on extended patrolling for commerce raiding/protection
or force projection.

Destroyers were designed to destroy enemy torpedo boats -- that is, provide
a defensive screen for the battle fleet.

There were a selection of minor types, but that was the core, and with the
exception of a few new types (the Fleet and Escourt Carriers) it held through
WWII.  After that, everything went to hell in a handbasket.

Ship designations since the start of the cold war have had a lot to do with
the politics of defence appropriations and nothing to do with function (which
is why Destroyers now do extended patrols, Agis cruisers provide zone defence,
and Janes lists submarines first among a nation's naval assets.)

In Traveller, it is even madder - witness the Patrol, Mercenary, and Kinunir
"Cruisers" in the same universe with the "Azanti High Lightning".  In my HG
designs I always tried for the WWI functional designations -- but when I
start FF&S design, I plan to stuff the whole mess for a new set of functional
designations that have some relation to real tactical employment.


Les Howie
Prograph International