Matty boy teaming up this time with Steven for some great info. Well done les Boys!

A line ship was a type of ship that was meant to fight in a line with others, from times of sailing ships to super dreadnoughts

The word/ship type "destroyer" (and I must say it sounds more formidable even than "battleship") comes from "torpedo boat destroyer", so they were supposed to destroy (mainly) those small pesky torpedo boats, that could threaten the capital ships. Present day classification has very little to do with traditional/original meaning of ship types.

Trick question: what's a "line ship" (linienschiff/lineinyi korabl')? :)

Cheers

Vlad

It's a question of size and purpose-
Corvettes - up to 2000 tons generally, seen as merchant escorts, patrol, and coastal unit
Frigates - up to 4500 tons generally, merchant and amphibious escorts
Destroyers - up to 9000 tons generally, fleet escorts (aircraft carriers, etc.)
Cruisers - Largest, Fleet Escorts and Flagships

Confused enough yet? Because those are generalities and most navies call ships what they want too, with some destroyers being larger than cruisers, or frigates smaller than corvettes.

Destroyers, I guess as the name implies, destroys things. But what do frigates actually do?